If you are a hummingbird enthusiast who wants to discover a wide variety of useful information that will help you to have more success photographing hummingbirds, this is a video you must see. In this video professional wildlife photographer Doug Gardner and Ben Clewis share tips and techniques for photographing hummingbirds in your backyard. This video is part of the Wild Photo Adventure TV Series and is episode number 206.
Month: July 2010
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Keys to Locating a Hummingbird Nest
A hummingbird nest can be extremely difficult to locate. Have you ever wanted to see one but did not know how to locate one? This post will offer some advice that may help you successfully locate one. You may not even have to go far to do so, it may be as close as your own yard.
Hummingbird nest are commonly located in the droopy branches of a tree about 8 to 12 feet above the ground.
It is also extremely important to look near a water source whenever you are trying to locate a hummingbird nest. Humidity is vitally important to help ensure the proper development of the embryo inside the egg. This explains why hummingbirds prefer to build near rivers, streams, ponds and lakes. Many hummingbird species also desire to nest near a reliable food supply, so the birds are looking for there to be abundant blossoms in the area. At the same time, the nest will be protected from rainfall and direct sunlight, thus making it likely to be tucked away and difficult to spot.
Those of you that have hummingbirds frequently visiting your yard, will possibly find a hummingbird nest in your yard as well. You should pay special attention in the end of June and early July to see if there are any young birds that do not fly very well. This is a sign that there is a hummingbird nest in your area.
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Low Survival Rate of Fledglings
It may surprise you to discover that fledgling hummingbirds have a very low survival rate. Just how low? Well, a startlingly low percentage, up to three-quarters of a given year’s fledglings are likely to die. The causes of this include predators, disease, accident, problems which occur during migration, or other problems.
As a hummingbird enthusiast myself, I am astounded by the sheer number of fledglings that are likely to die each year! What about those of you reading this post? Because a large number of fledglings die each year, I am even more appreciative of those that do survive. While I always have thought of hummingbirds as beautiful and remarkable creatures,I will never again take their survival and presence for granted.
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How Hummingbird Wings Are Unique
Hummingbird wings are quite different from that of other birds. The hummingbird rotates its wings differently then other birds. Slow motion video taken of birds indicates that most birds flap their wings up and down but the wings of the hummingbird actually move in a figure eight motion, which makes the hummingbird unique because this enables the hummingbird to be the only bird that has the ability of flying forward, as well as backwards, up, down, and sideways. The hummingbird also has another remarkable flying skill which is the ability to hover. As a result, the fight muscles of the hummingbird take up about 30% of the bird’s body.
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Do Hummingbirds Sweat?
A friend and I were recently talking about the very high temperatures and humidity that we commonly experience during the “dog days” of summer here in southeast Texas. We both remarked about how we hate this because it causes us to sweat a great deal. Each of us commented how the high heat and humidity is hard for us to stand and then our discussion turned to how the summer must be rough physically on a birds’ body and may even endanger its life.
My friend is well aware that I am a hummingbird enthusiast and as a result have a great deal of knowledge on the subject of hummingbirds. This provided me the perfect opportunity to share with my friend that birds do not sweat. This was an amazing fact to her and she wanted to know more about this issue.
Because birds do not sweat, excess heat is removed through the bird’s respiratory system. An extremely high body temperature may result in the bird’s respiratory rate increasing and this can sometimes result in the bird panting like a dog and this will result in the bird becoming dehydrated. If this occurs, a reliable source of water is necessary to ensure that the bird can replenish lost fluids.
Whenever I discover new interesting information about hummingbirds, I always look forward to sharing it with others, especially the readers of this blog. Those who know me are well aware of my love of hummingbirds and therefore they are usually interested in what my latest discovery on the subject of hummingbirds has been. This topic hopefully will be no different so I can share this knowledge further with others.
This is also the kind of information my mom would have enjoyed knowing as well and therefore as I write this post I cannot help but have thoughts of her running through my mind. Thanks mom for the love of hummingbirds that we shared! It continues to live and thrive within me and it is my passion to pass my knowledge of hummingbirds along to all who are interested.