Steven McDevitt, age 10, of Marshall, N.C., for his,question:
HOW DO HUMMINGBIRDS FEED THEIR YOUNG?
In early May, you can expect the ruby throated hummingbirds to return to Asheville, N.C. After their short courting season, you may be lucky enough to find one of their nests and watch the care and feeding of the babies for yourself. The secrets of your success are knowing where to look and keeping very quiet at a polite distance.
The little hummers are the gorgeous jewels of the bird world. What's more, their peppy energy and clever know how are even more remarkable than their glowing colors. There are more than 300 different kinds and all of them belong to the New World. Various species are found all the way from Alaska way down to the tip of South America. In most cases, the male wears the ,gaudy plumage and the,female wears soft, brownish shades. The courtship is a hectic dance in the air, too fast for human eyes to follow. In most species, the pleasure of tending and feeding the tiny babies is left to the female.
As a rule, she builds her mini nest in the angle of a twig, sheltered and shaded by leafy foliage. It is as small or smaller than half an eggshell, cunningly woven from mosses and spider web silk. The outside of the neat little cup is decorated with lichens, in colors that blend in with the woodsy scenery.
The mother bird lays two little white eggs and nestles down to keep them warm for two or three weeks. The newly hatched chicks are no bigger than bumblebees and quite naked. Now the little mother darts among the flowers, dipping her long tubular tongue down their throats to sip up the sweet nectar.
Time after time, she flies home and, beating her wings perhaps 70 times per second, she hovers over her nest. The hungry babies open up wide and she squirts the syrupy nectar into their mouths. Fed on nourishing nectar, the baby hummers grow very fast. After three weeks of motherly care they are fully feathered and ready to leave home. It is now time to catch insects to add protein to their sugary menus.
Not all the female hummers wear brownish plumage and not all the colorful males are neglectful fathers. The violet ear family lives in tropical South America. Both parents have ear tufts like dainty violets and this male hummingbird shares all the duties of nest building and tending the chicks.