hummingbird update

Last night in a 20 minute period a hummingbird repeatedly ran into our living room window about 6 times. Perhaps it was trying to get revenge for losing its soft tail feathers. Or it was trying to commit suicide but the glass was too bouncy.

the soft feathers

My sister gave Lisa a fabulous hummingbird feeder, and Lisa has faithfully been feeding them birds for over a month now. She even lovingly chastises them from the window as they are bullying each other away from the feeder.

A few weeks ago we went out to put in some fresh sugar water for them when we noticed something that made us wince. There was a small clump of soft, down feathers stuck to the lip of the feeder. The poor bird got stuck to the seat from some sticky sugar water and had to pull its own feathers off of its little rump to escape the sugary trap! Can you imagine the little hummingbird flapping its tiny wings so fast trying to escape? Or perhaps it was a normal take off but a sudden stinging in the rumpus area might have caused the little bird to black out in mid-flight as the shock set in.

Poor bird.