Jewel on a Journey

I didn't see the bird until it hit the window and fell onto the deck, and neither did my big brother. We heard a loud I thump, and there it was, the tiniest bird I had ever seen. Its feathers sparkled and glittered in the sunlight-its back shiny green and its throat bright red. It had a long, pointy bill like a needle, but I couldn't see any legs, just two little claw feet sticking out from its tummy.

"I think it's alive," Trey said.

I took the bird in my hands. "Get the parakeet cage!" I told Trey. I'd been wanting another bird ever since Tulip died. I'm the animal-lover in the family. Trey can hardly tear himself away from the computer.

"Hold it, Susannah," said Trey. "This is no pet parakeet. You don't know how to take care of it."

"Maybe Miss Nora knows." I looked across the back fence. "She has lots of bird feeders. I bet she's seen a little bird like this one before."

Our neighbor invited us onto her porch. She took the quiet bird from my hand and laid it on a towel. "A male ruby-throated hummingbird," she said. "The females have a white throat."

"Will he be OK?" I wondered.

"We'll let him catch his breath," she said, "while I fill these feeders."

"Let me help!" I said. "Where's your birdseed?"

"A hummingbird can't do much with a sunflower seed," Miss Nora replied.

"Then what do hummingbirds eat?" I asked.

"See if you can figure that out." Miss Nora smiled and went inside with the empty feeders.

I looked around at the big flowery vines and bushes in Miss Nora's garden. "Look, Trey," I said, "there's something hanging in the air in front of that pink flower. Oh, now it looks like it's trying to dive right into that long, orange flower."

"Susannah, that's another hummingbird," said Trey. "It must be trying to reach something down at the bottom of the flower. Wow! It just went into reverse and flew backward! Now it's poking at a spider web."

Miss Nora came back to the porch, carrying the feeders filled with clear liquid. "That's right, Trey," she said. "A hummingbird's long bill is perfect for drinking nectar from long, tube-shaped flowers like that trumpet creeper. It also lets the bird peck gnats and spiders out of a web safely. Hummers are so little-they weigh less than a penny-they have to be careful. They can get caught in a web . . . or stuck to a prickly flower head . . . or even eaten by a big dragonfly."

"Sounds dangerous," I said. "It's good they don't have to eat as much as big birds and fly around a lot looking for food."

"Oh, but they do," said Miss Nora. "A hummer's legs are so short, it can't walk very well, just fly and perch. And it flaps its wings so fast-up to 80 times a second-it needs lots of energy, which means lots of food. A hummer can eat twice its weight in nectar and insects every day. How many hamburgers would you eat, Susannah, if you needed as much energy as a hummingbird?"

"Ten?" I guessed.

"More like a hundred!" Miss Nora laughed. "Imagine how fat you'd be eating a hundred hamburgers a day! Beginning right around now, in August, hummingbirds try very hard to get fat. As the daylight gets shorter, the birds get the urge to fly south to southern Mexico or someplace else in Central America where they can find food all winter."

"So our bird could be on his way to Mexico from here in Virginia?" Trey interrupted.

"Maybe he started up north and just stopped here for lunch. We don't know. He can cover about 20 miles a day overland, stopping for food. But the big deal is the all-day and all-night flight over the Gulf of Mexico that some hummingbirds make. That's about 500 miles over a water, without rest or food."

"That's impossible!" Trey said.

"Everyone thought so for years," agreed Miss Nora. "When hummingbirds arrived up north every spring, people thought maybe they hitched a ride on the backs of geese. How could such a tiny creature fly hundreds of miles?"

"That's why they get fat!" I said. ''So they have enough energy for their long journey. Good thing you feed them whatever that is, Miss Nora."

"It's just sugar dissolved in water," answered Miss Nora, "but it helps."

"They'd be better off staying where it's warm," Trey said. "Why do they come back here, anyway?"

"Maybe it's because there's more room here. Hummingbirds don't like sharing their territory with another bird. They'll wave those long beaks like swords to chase away an intruder. As early as January, the birds start leaving their winter homes, moving farther north as the flowers bloom. I see my first hummer here in Virginia by early April. I report it to a Web site on the computer, so people farther north can follow the migration and put their feeders up in time. Then I enjoy watching the birds all summer long, until the last one goes in the fall."

She handed Trey and me the filled feeders. "Let's go hang these in the garden."

When we came back, I had a surprise. "Look! Our hummingbird's gone!" I pointed to the towel.

"Maybe that's him hovering around the feeder already,' said Trey.

"Getting his tummy full," I added.

Miss Nora smiled. We thanked her, then Trey ran into our house to look up the hummingbird Web site on the computer. I guess my parakeet cage will stay empty, but that's OK. I like thinking of the ruby-throated hummingbird I touched, sparkling in the sunshine like a jewel all the way to Mexico.