We have a hummingbird feeder in our backyard garden. When a hummingbird comes to take a drink, it makes me smile. They don’t do much—just zoom in, chatter a bit, hover a bit, drink a bit, and zoom away—but I never tire of watching them.

Hummingbirds can fly forwards, backwards, straight up, straight down, and sideways! They are one of the few birds that can truly hover, holding their exact position while beating their wings. That’s a lot to watch. Do you know that hummingbirds beat their wings about 53 times per second? Wow! Thinking about that is enough to put a smile on my face.

Ours are Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, really the only regularly seen hummingbird on the East Coast, and the only one that breeds here. They are tiny and beautiful. The males have brilliant green upper parts, a white breast, and a jewel-like fuchsia-colored collar. Females lack the collar, but are every bit as lovely and aerodynamic. Their feathers flash in the sunlight.

Hummingbirds drink liquid nectar, either from flowers or feeders. Trumpet-shaped flowers are preferred, due to the birds’ long, curved bills that they insert into the flowers; ornithologists believe that some flowers and hummingbirds evolved together. Hummingbirds then stick their tongues farther into the flowers at a rate of around 13 times per second to capture the nectar. The flowers generally lack a landing place from which to feed, so hummingbirds developed their ability to hover.

It’s pretty well known that hummers are attracted to red and orange flowers, but perhaps not so well known that hummingbirds can see into the ultraviolet spectrum, which helps them see these colors as a food source.

Another fun fact: hummingbirds cannot walk or even hop. Their very short legs let them perch, but the most they can manage on foot is a shuffle. But they make up for this with their precision flying.

Before I put the feeder up, we only saw hummingbirds when my step-mother-in-law, Lucille, would visit—she was the “hummingbird whisperer.” So I associate them with her, and now I think of her often. She suggested a feeder.

When I first put the feeder up, it took a while for the birds to find it. The first year I hung it out, I didn’t see any birds using it at all. But now they come. I always thought birds must have a communication system to alert each other to food sources, but they actually rely on their excellent eyesight to find food. It’s magic to me.

I hang the feeder in April, when I see the first migrating hummers nosing around for some food. They’ll hang around for a while on their way through, and then leave. I suspect some of these early visitors stay in the area, but they seem to disappear while they’re nesting and raising their families. Then they come back to the garden.

Earlier in the summer, the hummingbirds come to drink from the bee-balm and native honeysuckle, but now that it’s September, their favorite flowers are fading and they come almost exclusively to the feeder, after poking around and realizing there’s nothing much else on offer.

There are three, I think: two males and a female. Hummingbirds are territorial, and so expend a lot of energy chasing each other from the feeder vicinity, making little chirping sounds. One year, I hung out two feeders, but they chased each other away from both. They like to take a drink, fly to our new willow oak tree nearby, perch for a while, and fly back to the feeder, over and over. Then they zoom away.

They’re picky! I feed them a commercial food made with natural ingredients and no dye. When I ran out a few weeks ago and substituted what is apparently an inferior food, they were very unhappy and decided not to eat in our cafeteria. When the superior food was again offered to them, they came back and drank and drank. It’s also good to feed them uncolored sugar water.

They’ll be around for a short while longer and then they’ll leave and go south for the winter. And I’ll put the feeder away until spring.

Cover image: Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Joshua J Cotten, own work.