Kuby -throated Hummingbird 



If you weighed this rubythroat and nine 

 other hummingbirds, the scale would barely 

 show one full ounce. Yet this frequent 

 summertime visitor to the apple tree com- 

 munity will soon depart on an exhausting 

 long-distance flight. In autumn, humming- 

 birds will start streaming southward some 

 to Mexico and some to Central America, 

 many of them making the 5oo-mile leap 

 across the Gulf of Mexico in less than a day 

 of nonstop flying. 



Tiny, swift, powerful, and beautiful 

 those are the words for hummingbirds. 

 They can hover in mid-air; they can rise 

 vertically, like a helicopter; they can fly 

 backward. Their wings move so fast that all 

 your eye detects is a whirring blur of 

 feathers. Their song is tiny, too a high, 

 thin chittering that makes an exquisite 

 counterpoint of melody to the sound of their 

 buzzing wings. 



This colorful hummingbird dines well 

 in the apple tree community. Her long, 

 slender tongue seeks out nectar and insects 

 from such long-tubed flowers as the trumpet 

 vine, the honeysuckle, and the morning- 

 glory. For three or four months she will flit 

 about industriously. And then it is "Hasta 

 la vista." 



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