The hummingbird family is only in the Western Hemisphere. Early European explorers mistook them for strange insects. With warming winters, we now have year-round Anna’s hummingbirds in the Willamette Valley. In warm months, the smaller rufous returns to breed.  Rufous’s equally tiny cousin , Allen’s, breeds in far southwestern Oregon. Calliope hummingbird, North America’s smallest bird, breeds in our mountain meadows with blooming shrubs. This tyke is 3.25 inches long and you could mail ten of them (an ounce in weight) for a first class stamp.   There are two other hummingbirds breeding in Oregon:  the black-chinned is scattered across much of eastern Oregon, and has been confirmed in Douglas County, too. The broad-tailed is scarce here and the “Breeding Bird Atlas” has two Oregon locations confirmed, both near the eastern border. An Anna’s hummingbird. (ALBERT RYCKMAN photo) Enough boring taxonomy stuff.  What’s amazing about hummingbirds is how they live. Their wings can make a figure-8 while hovering. Also, they fly backwards. No other birds do that. When hovering, the wing may beat 80 times per second, too fast for you to count. To live and feed, these tiny birds have a very fast metabolism. Their heart beats 600 times (or more) per minute. That’s about ten times the healthy heartbeat rate of adult humans. Flower nectar is high in sugar and crucial to a hummer’s diet. The long beak and longer tongue probes into flowers. The grooved tongue withdraws with collected nectar. High sucrose content is preferred, fructose avoided.  Hummers harvest sap, even using sapsuckers’ wells through tree bark. They eat flying insects, ones on leaves, or plucked from a spider web.  Some ash or sand may be swallowed, presumably needed to produce egg shell. During the daytime a hummer’s body temperature is usually around 104 degrees Fahrenheit.  On cold nights the non-migratory Anna’s can go into torpor, dropping body temperature to 50 degrees, and breathing slowly, with reduced heart rate. On cold days the hummer converts sugar to fat to help endure the coming night-time torpor.  During torpor the metabolism rate can drop 95% from normal day-time.  The bird may breath as slowly as once …every five minutes. When it’s warm outside the hummer keeps its toes and legs hanging free in flight. When it gets cold, they’re tucked into the feathers. Hummers perch but cannot hop or walk. Adult hummers have few predators because of their speed (up to 40 mph) and quick maneuverability. Among themselves, hummers are quite aggressive, and good at aerial dives and loops. The Aztecs named a hummingbird their god of war. So when you marvel at a hummer flashing past, or one hanging in the air at a feeder or flower, know this marvelous creature deserves your wonder. For information about upcoming Salem Audubon programs and activities, see www.salemaudubon.org, or Salem Audubon’s Facebook page. Harry Fuller is an Oregon birder and natural history author of “Freeway Birding” and the newly-published “Birding Harney County.” He is a member of the Salem Audubon Society. Contact him at [email protected] or atowhee.blog. His “Some Fascinating Things About Birds” column appears regularly in Salem Reporter. LOCAL NEWS DELIVERED TO YOU: Subscribe to Salem Reporter and get all the fact-based Salem news that matters to you. Fair, accurate, trusted – SUBSCRIBE The post COLUMN: Tiny hummingbirds deserve wonder appeared first on Salem Reporter. ...read more read less