THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601050225
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
The tiny ruby-throated hummingbird perched on a branch in its Plexiglas cage and beat its wings until they were a blur of motion.
With all that energy, he could only lift his little body slightly up in the air because he has a broken wing, healing from a break last fall, probably caused by a run-in with a cat.
This lucky little bird is on the mend, thanks to the care of licensed wildlife rehabilitator Virginia Tavenner. Although Tavenner has cared for hundreds of ill or injured birds, this is the first hummingbird she has treated. On advice from experts in other parts of the country, she feeds it a day formula that is protein-based and a night formula of sugar water.
Curious, feisty and hungry, the little bird with its whirring wings acts like a hummingbird in every way but its flight. Because hummingbirds are so tiny, they have a high metabolism rate and must eat almost all the time. Tavenner's charge eats a tube of food a day, the tube being bigger than the bird itself!
A youngster, he is beginning to show tiny splotches of red on his throat, the sign that he is a male ruby-throated. Females don't have the ruby throat.
His tail feathers are a little scruffy, which Tavenner blames on his need to get around on the ground to feed. He dines from two tiny tubes just suited to his long beak, designed for reaching into the center of flowers for their sweet nectar. Otherwise from head to toe, his back feathers are a sparkling iridescent green, as shiny as a bauble in a ring.
When he sits quietly on a branch in the cage, his bill looks almost as long as his body. Most of us see hummingbirds on the wing with their necks extended as they reach into a blossom to feed. Sitting still, this one, especially with his shortened tail feathers, looks like nothing more than a cotton ball with a beak.
The bird squeaks when hungry or irritated - as he was with my camera. Yet he showed no fear, staring me right down as I looked at him. When researching hummingbirds, I discovered the little birds must have hearts as big as their whole bodies. The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds reports that hummers have been seen chasing hawks out of their territory!
This happily recovering bird has sharply pointed out to Tavenner and Sandy Krebs, also a local wildlife rehabilitator, the plight of a western hummingbird that was seen locally on the National Audubon's Christmas Bird Count. Auduboner Bob Anderson discovered the bird Dec. 31 in a Russian olive tree on 83rd Street. Since then the bird has been a feast for bird watchers' eyes who gather there to see a little creature far out of its range.
The juvenile bird was identified as a hummingbird of the Selasphorus genus, probably a rufous hummingbird. It is not only well out of its range but the little bird also can't survive the winter here, said Krebs and Tavenner, because it usually winters in southern Mexico.
``There is no doubt in my mind that this little bird will die,'' Krebs said. ``If it were meant be in Virginia, there'd be a lot more of them here.''
Now that Tavenner has had such success with the hummingbird she is treating, Krebs would like nothing better than to save the 83rd Street bird, turn it over to Tavenner to get it healthy and then fly it back to a hummingbird rehabilitation group she knows about in Arizona.
So far the bird has been dining on the nectar in the Russian olive's sweet smelling blossoms, some of which were still in bloom. Krebs and Tavenner fear the cold weather this week will finally put those flowers out of commission.
Although some Audubon Society members would prefer to let nature take its course, both Krebs and Tavenner think the bird should be rescued, in the same way cold-stunned sea turtles are rehabilitated and sent south.
``I can't even imagine not intervening,'' Tavenner said. ``Here's this wayward hummingbird and I just don't think he's going to make it. He's thousands of miles off course and it's already winter.''
If anybody can intervene and save it, Krebs and Tavenner can.
P.S. The week after Christmas, a ruby-throated hummingbird was seen feeding on some salvia still in bloom in Maury and Barbara Jackson's Bay Colony yard. If you are concerned about a hummingbird straggler in your neighborhood, call my INFOLINE number below and I will put you in touch with Tavenner for advice.
``FROM THE ATTIC,'' an exhibit of photos and artifacts from the Life-Saving Museum of Virginia's storage area, will be on exhibit Jan. 9-28. A miniature shrimp trawler made entirely of wooden matchsticks is among the exhibit items. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
This young ruby-throated hummingbird is healing from a broken wing
at the home of wildlife rehabilitator Virginia Tavenner. The bird
dines from two tiny tubes containing a protein-based formula during
the day and a night formula of sugar water.
by CNB