Mid Air Hover

by Debby Pueschel

Title

Mid Air Hover

Artist

Debby Pueschel

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

It is always a treat to have a Rufous Hummingbird stop by my home on its migration south to their winter home.
The male Rufous, glowing like new copper penny, often defends a patch of flowers in a mountain meadow, vigorously chasing away all intruders (including larger birds). The Rufous also nests farther north than any other hummingbird: up to south-central Alaska. Of the various typically western hummingbirds, this is the one that wanders most often to eastern North America, with many now found east of the Mississippi every fall and winter.
One hummingbird commonly seen west of the Rockies is the Rufous Hummingbird. The hummingbird is the only bird that can truly hover. It manages this by flapping its wings 20 to 80 times a second. It can fly straight up and down. Backwards and forwards. Or upside down. And up to 75 miles an hour. But don’t worry, it won’t run into you. This bird can slow down from 25 miles an hour to a dead stop in a space no longer than your index finger.
I came across this information which was very informative! Gerald Mayr is the paleontologist at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Germany who identified the fossils as hummingbirds in 2004. (He named the species Eurotrochilus inexpectatus to reflect his surprise at the finding.) One look at the short upper wing bones on the specimen and he knew: They looked just like the unusual “short and stocky humerus” that help modern-day hummingbirds with their aerial acrobatics.

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Uploaded

August 30th, 2021

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