An Ode to The Hummingbird

An energetic bird you are. Appearing from Alaska to South America, you dazzle and delight with the personality from each species on your chronicled sojourns from March until September. You tease those folks into leaving you sweet treats while they only think they have the power to draw you back again.

The lure of the Inga Tree, Chuquiragua Shrub, and Ecuadorian Hillstar call louder in the Ecuadorian Mountains than anyone with a feeder could entice. Even the Salvia, Clematis and Honeysuckle draw you more closely than any device we could ever create for your pleasure. So if we are wise, we plant a garden for you and hope to high heaven that you made it safe through the winter once more.

You made it! You made it! We all exclaim when we see you for the first time we call in a report and think that we have been the good deed doer for making the effort to provide a Map which tracks your presence in our hemisphere.

You stay the summer with us, we band you, observe you and adore you. We celebrate you with festivals and teach our young to protect you. One who adored you most left us unexpectedly at the end of a season; Fernando Ortiz-Crespo’s ashes were scattered at Lake Micacocha where your flight is endless and the beauty there is serene. He found peace there in Ecuador writing about you and will forever be remembered.

You encourage many to pick up the pen and write for science sake but especially for beauty’s sake. Year after year, you remain tireless in your quest to produce a clutch of only two in a tiny little nest from eggs the size of a pea. You are certainly quick and dart about almost mechanically. Only the best photograph can capture your wing motions as you speed off to be observed by your next admirer while you enjoy the lure of the most beautiful flowers.