When hummingbirds appear

Forest gardening is for the birds

February has finally come to an end, which for many of us humans brings a deep sense of relief. And while daylight hours are increasing, it is still too early to expect hummingbirds in this part of the world (Un’amaki/Cape Breton). However, by the middle of May the fiercely territorial, male ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) — Nova Scotia’s only native hummingbird — will begin to arrive to stake out their territory. Female hummingbirds follow a couple of weeks later.

Male ruby-throated hummingbird. Sackville, NS. July 26, 2022. Photo by Steve Boutilier. Used with permission.

I am always delighted to catch my first, spring-time glimpse of a hummingbird — sometimes just a glint of emerald iridescence flitting by — or to hear the unmistakable inflight buzz — wings, beating more than 50 times per second.

Hummingbird wing speed varies depending on the species. The smaller the hummingbird, the faster it flaps its wings. Ruby-throated hummingbird wings beat about 50 times a second. A rufous hummingbird’s wings beat as fast as 52 to 62 wingbeats per second. The giant hummingbird of the Andes, about the same length as a cardinal, hums at 12 beats a second. The bee hummingbird of Cuba, the smallest bird on earth at only 2 inches from bill tip to tail tip, buzzes along at 80 beats per second. https://www.birdsandblooms.com

For a creature so tiny (weighing less than 4 g), it never ceases to amaze me how ruby- throated hummingbirds migrate those thousands of miles — as far as Mexico and even Panama, and back again. Each spring we can’t help but thrill at their arrival. For some, hummingbirds symbolize renewal and the end of challenging times.

Once they arrive, Nova Scotia’s ruby-throated hummingbirds grace us with their gem-like presence until early September when they return, once more, to their winter habitat. Each way, their migratory journey is perilous. Many traverse the Gulf of Mexico to reach their destination. While others, once reaching their seasonal homes find the trees and plants they depend upon for food and shelter imperilled. But while degraded and diminished habitat is a major concern for all hummingbird species, it is not their only threat.

In these northerly reaches of Archilochus colubris’s breeding territory, anticipating their spring arrival is a heady pastime. Already there have been a couple of folks in my Birds of Nova Scotia social-media group who have queried the possibility of having seen or heard a ruby-throated hummingbird!!! With snow still on the ground and temperatures plummeting well below freezing on most nights, other group members dispel the plausibility. It is still too early. There will be no blossoms and therefore no nectar — hummingbird elixir — for several more months. But I can understand the allure of willing these glittering heralds of spring to hurry-up and arrive. It may be, that at a deep and soulful level, we need them just as we need to behold a spectacuar sunset, or feel on our skin the quenching caress of a warm spring rain. ‘

There are more than 350 known hummingbird species, with a few new ones being identified each year. Hummingbirds are endemic only to South, Central and North America - from t Patagonia to the forested edge of the Arctic tundra. And while most species of hummingbirds live their whole lives in the equatorial region of the Americas, there are five species that migrate as far north as Canada. And of those five, only one species returns to Nova Scotia to nest and renew their ancient lineage - the ruby-throated hummingbird!

Ruby-throated hummingbird. Churchover, Nova Scotia July 2022. Photo by Ronnie Hallet, used with permission.

The ‘official’ conservation status of Archilochus colubris is deemed to be of ‘least concern’ - meaning that at last count there were plenty of breeding birds and their habitat is secure. Still, whenever we encounter one we experience an embodied extraordinariness that defies their apparent commonness. With their dextrous, albeit quirky, flight patterns, and their proclivity for imbibing floral nectar, hummingbirds exemplify the very essence of whimsical joyfulness and reflect a mystery so deep as to invoke a spirit of reverence in those humans attuned to the sacredness of Creation. For indeed, hummingbirds are spiritual connectors - emissaries from the realm of the sublime — and in gracing us with their ephemeral visitations, they remind us that our own lives are entwined with the Divine.

Dr. Rocío Alarcón, an ethnobotanist with ancestral roots in the lineages of the curanderas of the Ecuadorian Andes, notes that many Indigenous people consider hummingbirds to be messengers and teachers, that help us celebrate the joy of life. She writes, “In my healing work with clients I have observed that the iridescent colours of the feathers of hummingbirds have the ability to change the brain’s electrical frequency and modify a person’s mental state. When sunlight touches their plumage, they send rays of light. When the rays touch the person, these iridescent special colours produce changes in his or her brain like a phenomenon of bioluminescent that generates changes in the emotional states of the person.”  (https://www.natureevolutionaries.com/teleseminars-1/2021/hummingbirds-with-rocio-alarcon).

When this past December (long after the last hummingbird had departed from Nova Scotia to migrate south), hummingbirds started showing up in my day to day reality, filling my consciousness with both wonder and questions, I felt as if they had something to tell me.

These winter-time encounters with hummingbirds first started happening while I was reading Doug Tallamy’s informative and enchanting book on oak trees: The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees. Tallamy — a renowned entomologist and advocate for native gardening — asserts that oak trees (genus Quercus) host more insect life than any other native species of tree. This diverse array and vast volume of insect bodies, in turn, feed the next trophic level of insects, birds and mammals, casting oak trees into the ecological role of being a keystone species. It was through Tallamy that I learned that, contrary to the widely held assumption that hummingbirds subsist on floral nectar (or sugar solution), in fact, “80% of their nutrition comes from insects and spiders! They rely heavily on insects as a protein source which is especially critical when raising their young who eat nothing but insects provided by their mothers. Insects provide hummers with essential vitamins, minerals, oils, fats, etc., that they simply don’t get from nectar” (https://www.inournature.ca/plants-for-hummingbirds#:~:text=Hummingbirds).

Not surprisingly, being both insectivores and nectarivorous, all species of hummingbirds engage with a diverse array of botanicals, and in doing so provide a significant ecological service — pollination! What’s more, to the extent that many angiosperms (flowering plants) have co-evolved with these diminutive birds (in certain ecological contexts ) are also considered keystone species. The trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), a woodland vine native to the eastern United States and naturalized elsewhere, seems to be adapted specifically to pollination by ruby-throated hummingbirds (https://www.inaturalist.org). Similarly, Nova Scotia’s ‘at risk’ Canada Lily (Lilium canadense) is thought to be mainly pollinated by the ruby-throated hummingbird.

Knowing this singularity of relationship, between certain species of flora and the ruby-throated hummingbird, can inspire us to provide them with the essential nutrients of a well-balanced diet. In doing so, we can help support populations of botanicals that may or may not be present in our own gardens — such as the Canada Lily. But remember, planting a forest garden with ‘high volume’ nectar producing botanicals is only one piece of the puzzle in supporting hummingbird dietary needs. The other critical piece —albeit, at first glance a less appealing one — is to plant an array of flora that attract a diversity of small insects —mosquitoes, aphids, leafhoppers and gnats, and other arthropods such as spiders and mites.

My enchanted potato patch in Lake St. Peter, ON. Surrounded by a dense stand of fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium) — a perennial in the same family as the evening primrose (another hummingbird favourite!) — hummingbirds and bumblebees would often visit me while I worked.

Following Tallamy’s informative message on hummingbird dietary needs, my second winter encounter with hummingbirds came via a podcast from Pacific Rim College, featuring Rocio Alarcon (you can listen to the whole podcast here: https://www.pacificrimcollege.com/pacific-rim-college-radio). On this podcast, Alarcon, a practicing cuendaro (shaman) of ancient Ecuadorian lineage, spoke eloquently about the ‘master plants’ of her people. Alarcon is also an environmental activist and for many decades has been protecting the fragile ecosystems of her homeland. Specifically, her efforts have focused on the many hummingbirds that are native to her country, and to this end she has established a 100+ acre hummingbird sanctuary. While avian conservation is her method, her objective is decidedly more spiritual. Hummingbirds are highly revered beings in the cosmology and healing traditions of the Indigenous people of her homeland. In this context, hummingbirds throughout the Americas are held in reverence and respect by Indigenous people.

But sadly, the allure of hummingbird enchantment has also become mired in a practice that threatens their existence — the illegal international trade in hummingbird love charms:

Few people are aware that hummingbirds are the objects of active illegal international trade. The practice of incorporating the bodies of hummingbirds in love charms, known as chuparrosa charms, is a centuries-old tradition in Mexico. The practice has now spread to the United States. (Conservation science and practice: A journal of the society of conservation biology - https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/csp2.12679)

Identification, by law enforcement officer, of the species of hummingbirds comprising these so-called ‘love’ charms revealed that between 2013-2021, of the 905 hummingbird carcasses seized, 146 were ruby-throated hummingbirds. While this may not seem like a large number of dead bodies compared to other acts of bird carnage, the concerning issue here takes us much deeper into the human psyche - and its not a pretty picture. The very notion that we might conjure ‘love’ through the destruction and profit motivated consumption of hummingbird bodies epitomizes a kind of depravity that at first glance is hard to fathom. But the destruction and commercialization of nature’s gifts is not limited to this particular, albeit extreme case of avarice. Most of us need not look very far in our own corner of the earth to encounter examples of the extreme despoliation of nature for profit.

As disheartened as we might (and rightly should) feel over such an example of wanton destruction, I have one last hummingbird encounter to share with you, that I hope leaves you with a sense of wonder, and perhaps an understanding of why I was beginning to feel like hummingbirds just might be trying to tell me something. It is sad, and at the same time strangely uplifting that my last encounter came with the passing of my partner Jenece’s mom, Pamela Gerber. Pam was enamoured/enchanted with hummingbirds and I learned about her love for these creatures at precisely the same time I was listening to Rocio Alarcon speak about the spiritual significance of hummingbirds to the Indigenous healers of Ecuador. I have come to accept and even desire encounters with what we might call the mystical ’. You know, the kind of concurrence of events or situations that can only be explained in this rationally fixated culture with words like ‘coincidence’ or ‘serendipity’ or ‘illusion — word not unlike what we can feel when we glimpse a hummingbird.

Rocio Alarcon tells us that “hummingbirds are enigmatic creatures that can move from one dimension to another”. I like that! Throughout history, every human culture has grappled with the question of where do we go when the time comes for us to leave our earthly bodies. I believe that hummingbirds can remind us that we too are transcendent.

This growing season I encourage each of you to plant your garden with hummingbirds in mind. Through my work with Grandmother Birch Forest Garden Designs I will be compiling a list of botanicals that are native to north-eastern North Amercan, which hummingbirds love. I will be offering some of these plants at local farmers markets.