By Kim Maley, Park Interpreter, Friends of Silver Falls
Have you ever been enjoying a serene day at the park - watching fluffy clouds drift by, trees swaying in a gentle breeze, bird song on the wind - and suddenly you hear what sounds like a monster sized angry bee and see flashes of red buzzing dangerously close past your head?? If so, there is likely a hummingbird nest nearby. Though tiny, the Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) is seemingly unaware of his size when defending his territory! Cornell University’s, All About Birds deems them “the feistiest hummingbird in North America”. They relentlessly attack when defending their territory.
Hummers’ nests are flexible and expand as the chicks grow. Photo credit: Andy Nelson
The Rufous gets its name from its rufous color, a reddish-brown, especially prominent on males. As is the common story in the avian world, the boys get all the pretty things and the females are relatively plain. Male Rufous Hummingbirds sport a flashy red throat scarf whereas the females, having a greater need to go unnoticed by predators and protect the next generation, lack the bright plumage of the males. Ever the show-off, the male will attempt to impress a perched female with an impressive pendulum-like flight.
The Rufous has a heartbeat of 1,260 per minute and beats its wings on average 60 times per second! For perspective, how many times can you clap your hands per second? You would think these tiny little balls of energy would need to eat continuously to keep up but ecologists have observed brief foraging bouts (less than a minute) peppered between significant periods of “doing nothing”. Further experimentation revealed that these periods of rest were in fact the time needed to empty their crops (make more room in their digestive systems). Over-eating for a hummer costs energy with no return benefit (a lesson for us all, maybe?!)
The Rufous Hummingbird is the most common hummer at Silver Falls State Park. There have been a few reported sightings of the Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna) but most birders familiar with the park report only Rufous. On your visit to Silver Falls keep an eye out for these bold tiny birds!
Sources and for further information: The Birders Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds; The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America; Birds of the Willamette Valley Region