"Most Brilliant" Winner

Today's post will feature the second category of my bird pageant awards.  If you missed the first one you can read it by clicking here. 

As you've already seen by the post title, this time the award is for "most brilliant".  Brilliant has two meanings: very bright and radiant; or exceptionally clever or talented.  Our winner excels in both!

 Here is our winner, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, showing off his brilliance in the late afternoon sun at my window feeder.

While the hummers are brilliant, they aren't always.  Sunlight does have to strike their feathers to show off the males' red gorget.

Above is a male sitting in our crabapple tree facing away from the light, and here he is when he turned his head towards the sun:

Pretty amazing difference, isn't it?  Hummingbirds are amazing birds in many ways.  From how fast their little wings beat (about 70 times a second and up to 200 times a second when diving!) to how far many of them migrate (500 miles over the Gulf of Mexico - flying for 18 to 24 hours straight!) there are many incredible facts about these tiny birds.  Did you know you could mail 9 or 10 hummingbirds with a single stamp?  (I loved reading that information, which of course is to impress us with how little they weigh, but had my vivid imagination picturing trying to capture 10 hummingbirds then taking them to the post office!) You can read more interesting hummingbird facts by clicking here.

Now for the second qualification Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have to win the "most brilliant" category:  their brains are the largest bird brains per body weight of any birds!  That's 4.2% of their total weight.  Scientists have done a lot of studies on hummingbirds and discovered some very interesting things about how they can remember which flowers they have visited, when, and when to visit them again for the best nectar.  You can read more about it here.

Here are a few photos of our winners:

Can you find the hummer in this photo?  They blend in quite well with green leaves!

Easier to see in this photo, enjoying the Scarlet Runner Bean flowers

You can see the male juvenile throat feathers in this shot.  He doesn't have his full red gorget yet...

but as he goes to perch on the wire fence you can see one bright red spot!

I plant red flowers for our hummers, as they are definitely attracted to the color.

They like any red flowers, but especially tubular-shaped ones like these Millions Bells (Calibrachoa)

Despite their brilliance, they do have to learn about things, like any other creature.  I've seen them fly to the red on our rain gauge.  No.... no food there.  Also I saw one check out the red on a Rose-breasted Grosbeak one day!

This juvenile is looking to see if this Miniature Rose has any good nectar.

I wonder if it got a drink from there?!

In my online search for information about hummingbirds I was fascinated by all the interesting things I read.  One of the things that intrigued me was some of the names that hummingbirds are known by in other countries.  

In Portuguese they are called "Beija-Flor" which means "Flower-Kisser".    One Spanish term isn't quite as 'romantic'.  It's "Chupaflor" for "Flower-Sucker".

 There are two other names for them in Spanish -- "Joyas Voladoras" (Flying Jewels) and "Picaflor" (Flower-nibbler)!

I like the name for them in the Carribbean (Cuba and Haiti have the world's smallest hummer - the Bee Hummingbird).  They call them "El Zunzun" for the sound they make as they fly.

Whatever we call them, they are certainly beautiful and fascinating birds!

Congratulations to our winners!