I consider a wild bird a pet when that bird takes notice of me and makes a special effort to hover in front of me and look me square in the eye, on repeated occasions. And since I also feed the birds and they comes to my feeders every year.
This bird is a hummingbird, a bird that Ornithologists tell us, wings beat 75 times a second, wings that are narrow and have no joints, and can spin almost like rotary propellers and can move in any direction in a microsecond. Any wonder that these birds fascinate us.
These birds in my area are the "ruby-throat," hummingbirds. They are small and very delicate, about 4 inches long and weigh about as much as a penny. Yet this tiny bird makes a non-stop 500 mileflight across the Gulf of Mexico, every spring and in early autumn.
The hummingbirds have no need to reduce speed as it approaches my feeders, as it can be at full velocity and yet stop abruptly. And although, we might not see them perching much they do perch as much as other birds do. However, their feet are small and weak so they do not hop or walk about the yard.
Hummingbird nests are the size of a walnut. They use plant-down and lichen to build their nests and spider silk to make it strong and anchor it to trees. They lay two pure white pea-sized eggs in the nest. After about three weeks the eggs hatch. The babies are very tiny. The young are fed by regurgitation, where the mother jabs her long bill down the baby's throat and pushes food into their stomach.
As the baby's grow they are seen sitting on the edge of the nest stretching their wings and combing out tail feathers. They try to use their wings, over and over, until one day when they spring from the nest and fly.
I feed my hummingbirds sugar water, one part sugar to four parts water. It is easy to bring the water to a boil and then add the sugar. Each time before refilling my feeders, I wash the feeders with hot soapy water and a bottle brush. This keeps fungus or mold, from growing in the feeders.
When these fearless little fliers come to look me in the eye and the iridscent feathers glisten in the sunlight, I marval at the beauty of this little bird, as it hovers before me, then quickly vanishes leaving as quickly as it came.
I provide natural food for these birds as well by planting gladiolus and petunias, nasturtiums and begonias and hibiscus flowers.
