Hummingbird Aerodynamics
by Louise Parsons

Be like the bird
That, pausing in her flight
Awhile on boughs too slight,
Feels them give way
Beneath her and yet sings,
Knowing that she hath wings. --Victor Hugo

Learning to fly has brought new dimensions to two other hobbies of mine: bird-watching and gardening. As a gardener, I am woefully wild and unspecialized. The nearest I come to any theme or focus in the garden is hummingbird flowers. For over twenty-five years I have collected flower seed and observed hummers in both wild high meadows and my exuberant gardens.

Garden taste long ago abandoned, gaudy and weedy doesn't bother me one bit. Reds delightfully clash with oranges, pinks, purples, and magentas. Where else but in western Oregon could you grow lilies, tall penstemons and ferns in the same beds anyway. During the summer tall ugly weedy stuff such as scrophularia and jewel weeds (impatiens sp.) drip with nectar and protect spring geophyte gems such as trillium and erythronium from the hottest afternoon sun.

Our work in a burned area this summer provided a dramatic setting for hummingbird watching. In severely burned areas of blackened sticks for trees, thick grey ash for soil, and rocks shattered by intense heat, who would expect to find hummers? The fireweed bloomed heavily, with brilliant magenta splashes against the desolate grey and black. The hummers quickly staged a major fly-in. What a treat it was, to watch as many as thirty birds, feeding on brilliant drifts. They found me too, buzzing my bright vest and colorful gear.

Anything so tiny and gem-like that migrates from Mexico to arrive here in western Oregon in February deserves the respect, if not admiration, of we humble pilots. Watch a hummingbird closely and marvel at unequaled aerodynamic grace. Their facility is amazing. They hover, pivot, fly forward, and fly backward. They fly upside down. They dart to catch tiny gnats with precision.. They zing projectile-like in a high-flying courtship display accompanied by remarkably loud chatter for so tiny a bird. Closely watch them perch. They don't reduce speed even a whisker upon "landing", but instead reach the chosen perch at full speed and simply full-stall it in a flash. They literally fly onto their nest, touching down with equal lightness and rapidity.

No other bird or machine has the ability to cut the air at so many different angles, nor to do so with such unlimited facility and rapidity. Watch their generous tails as they are rapidly flared and angled for a bit of drag here and there. Fancy flaps indeed! Hummingbirds are war birds too. They are highly territorial and will defend their favorite spots fiercely. I have watched them attack much larger birds such as jays. A local birder once remarked that they fight "like junkyard dogs". Their combat maneuvers are such fun to watch, much better than the war movies. At nesting time in March things really escalate around here.

When the Imperial Wars are won, they settle down on their tiny nests made from moss and lichens, bound together with spider web and favorite sticky plants. Often they raise two broods. In cool summers they may raise even three. The youngsters earn advanced ratings very quickly, going from fuzzy-ragged student pilots to advanced aerobats in a matter of a day or so.