Hummingbirds

I feel like writing about hummingbirds today.

There are hummingbirds--or at least some kind of sapsuckers--here in Israel, but they don't hum. They can hover over a flower to suck nectar, but I don't know if they can fly backwards. They are pretty little birds, black with iridescent shoulders and long curved beaks, and you often see them on the red flowers of bottle-brush trees.

The kind I am used to, however, is the ruby-throated hummingbird. It is green with a ruby throat that looks red only if you see it at the right angle, and disappears when you look from another angle. They fly in any direction, and sometimes do a little dance that's as if they're on a swing.

Hummingbirds are almost like large bumblebees, both because of their size and because of the buzzing noise their wings make. Once I thought I heard the distant sound of a chain saw in the woods behind us, and then realized it was a hummingbird right near my head!

We kept hummingbird feeders on our porch, and you could get a pretty close-up view of them when they came to feed. One feeder had red plastic flowers on it, and the other had yellow plastic flowers. The hummingbirds definitely preferred the yellow ones.

Once I had a hummingbird follow me while I was carrying a tray of petunias I was getting ready to plant. Another time one hovered right in front of my face, perhaps attracted by the glint of my glasses. They like all kinds of flowers, including daylilies and beebalm. I don't imagine they like marigolds.