THE BROAD-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD.
(_Selasphorus platycercus._)
When morning dawns * * * *
The flower-fed hummingbird his round pursues;
Sips with inserted tube the honied blooms,
And chirps his gratitude as round he roams;
While richest roses, though in crimson drest,
Shrink from the splendor of his gorgeous breast.
What heavenly tints in mingling radiance fly!
Each rapid movement gives a different dye;
Like scales of burnished gold they dazzling show—
Now sink to shade, now like a furnace glow!
—Alexander Wilson.
If we desire to study the Broad-tailed Hummingbird in the regions that
it frequents, we must journey to the mountainous district of Western
North America. Here it may be found in large numbers, for it is the most
common of all the species that frequent the mountains. It seeks its food
of insects and honey from the flowers of a prolific flora extending from
Wyoming and Idaho southward through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas
and over the table lands of Mexico into Guatemala. It is pretty
generally distributed throughout the various mountain systems between
the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas.
Dr. Merriam found the Broad-tails very abundant in the balsam and pine
belts of the San Francisco Mountains of Arizona, where their principal
food plants were the scarlet trumpet flower and the large blue larkspur.
Of their habits he says, “They wake up very early in the morning and go
to water at daylight, no matter how cold the weather is. During the
month of August, and particularly the first half of the month, when the
mornings were often frosty, hundreds of them came to the spring to drink
and bathe at break of day. They were like a swarm of bees, buzzing about
one’s head and darting to and fro in every direction. The air was full
of them. They would drop down to the water, dip their feet and bellies,
and rise and shoot away as if propelled by an unseen power. They would
often dart at the face of an intruder as if bent on piercing the eye
with their needlelike bill, and then poise for a moment almost within
reach before turning, when they were again lost in the busy throng.
Whether this act was prompted by curiosity or resentment I was unable to
ascertain.”
It seems strange and unnatural that so delicate a bird and one so highly
colored should frequent localities where periods of low temperature are
common. Yet the Broad-tailed Hummingbird prefers high elevations and has
been known to nest at an altitude of eleven thousand feet, and it seldom
breeds at places lower than five thousand feet.
The males leave for their winter homes very early in the season. Usually
this migration takes place very soon after the young birds leave their
nests. Mr. Henshaw attributes this movement of the males to the fact
that their favorite food plant, the Scrophularia, begins to lose its
blossoms at this time. He says: “It seems evident that the moment its
progeny is on the wing and its home ties severed, warned of the approach
of fall alike by the frosty nights and the decreasing supply of food,
off go the males to their inviting winter haunts, to be followed not
long after by the females and young. The latter, probably because they
have less strength, linger last, and may be seen even after every adult
bird has departed.”
[Illustration: BROAD-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD.
(Selasphorus platycercus.)
Life-size.
FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES.]
Though the flight of all hummingbirds is rapid, that of this species is
unusually so. During the breeding season, or at least while mating, the
flight of the male is accompanied by a loud metallic noise. This is only
heard when the bird is rapidly flying and not when it is hovering over
flowers. Mr. Henshaw suggests that this sound may be “analogous to the
love notes of other birds.” Though he saw “many of these birds in the
fall, it was only very rarely that this whistling note was heard, and
then only with greatly diminished force.” He believed that the sound was
produced at the will of the bird and by means of some peculiar
attenuation of the outer primary wing feather. The nesting places of
many of the hummingbirds, as well as that of the Broad-tail, may
frequently be located by the peculiar perpendicular flight of the male.
They will frequently fly as high as one hundred feet immediately above
the vicinity of the nest, repeating the performance several times before
alighting on some perch. The female is a faithful mother and will often
remain on her nest until an intruder is within a few inches. The nest,
though sometimes placed on large branches, is usually built but a few
feet from the ground in low bushes or boughs that overhang water.
In their migrations southward the Broad-tailed Hummingbird is frequently
found in company with the rufous-backed species, for which it shows an
especial animosity. Speaking of these two species, Mr. Henshaw says:
“The beds of bright flowers about Willow Spring, in the White Mountains,
Arizona, were alive with them in August, and as they moved swiftly to
and fro, now surfeiting themselves on the sweets they here found so
abundant, now fighting with each other for possession of some such
tempting prize as a cluster of flowers, their rapid motions and the
beauty of their colors intensified by the bright sunlight, conspired to
an effect not soon to be forgotten.”