Enjoying Hummingbirds

Attract amazing hummingbirds to your backyard! With this comprehensive, beautifully illustrated guide, you'll find it easy to attract these tiny jewel-like birds to your own yard. With this comprehensive, beautifully illustrated guide, you'll find it easy to attract these tiny, jewel-like birds to your own yard. The Stokes Hummingbird Book provides all the information you need to bring hummingbirds up close, identify them, and understand their fascinating and varied behavior. The book includes: Range maps and full-color photographs to help you identify and locate hummingbirds Information on how to select the proper feeders, what to use in them, when to put them up, and when to take them down Advice on what flowers to plant to attract hummingbirds in your part of the country Amazing facts about hummingbirds, such as how fast they fly and how much they weigh Guidelines for photographing hummingbirds Complete information on hummingbird behavior, including flight displays, breeding habits, and feeding A special section on attracting orioles, with photographs and behavior guides for each of the eight species found in North America A resource list for hummingbird supplies

- How to identify hummingbirds--where to find them, when to look, and what to expect in the region where you live - Tips for the backyard birder on how to attract and feed hummingbirds The hummingbird is one of the most attractive and popular birds in North America. Its small size, brilliant coloring, and ability to feed in flight make it a favorite backyard visitor. This colorful guide describes the fascinating life in the wild of a variety of hummingbird species and tells bird lovers how to attract hummingbirds to the backyard. Information from the most recently published research is augmented by personal experiences in the field as well as conversations with hummingbird experts. Topics include hummingbird behavior, migration, and predators--all illustrated with full-color photos.

Covering 31 North American species, with more than 250 color photos and 33 maps, this is the most comprehensive field guide to hummingbirds. Introductory chapters cover the natural history of hummingbirds, ways to attract and feed them, and major hot spots in the United States and Canada for observing these fascinating birds. The 31 color plates illustrate 28 species, 7 hybrid combinations, 3 forms of albinism, and 4 species of sphinx moths often mistaken for hummingbirds. Species accounts provide in-depth information on plumage, molt, songs and calls, wing sounds, similar species, behavior, habitat, distribution, taxonomy, and conservation concerns. Detailed range maps show breeding, non-breeding, and year-round distribution, migration routes, and records outside expected areas of occurrence.

"Hummingbirds and angels don’t need two good feet. They have wings." That's what Alba's mother always says. Of course, Alba doesn't have wings or two good feet: she has Cleo. Cleo is the name Alba has given to her left foot, which was born twisted in the wrong direction. When she points this out, though, her mother just smiles like the world has some surprise in store Alba doesn't know about yet. Well, Alba has her own surprise planned. After one final surgery and one final cast, Cleo is almost ready to meet the world straight on--just in time to run in the sixth grade cross-country race. Unfortunately, Alba's best friend Levi thinks there's no way she can pull it off. And she thinks there's no way he's right about the school librarian hiding a wormhole in her office. Tempers flare. Sharp words fly faster than hummingbirds. And soon it looks like both friends will be stuck proving their theories on their own.

In this invitingly-written book, June Osborne paints a fully detailed portrait of perhaps the best-known hummingbird in the United States, the ruby-throat. There is no mistaking a hummingbird. Even people who hardly know a robin from a sparrow recognize that flash of iridescent feathers and the distinctive hovering flight. So popular have “hummers” become that even casual birdwatchers now travel great distances to hummingbird hot spots to see masses of birds in their annual migrations. Drawing from her own birdwatching experiences, June Osborne offers an “up close and personal” look at a female ruby-throat building her nest and rearing young, as well as an account of a day in the life of a male ruby-throat and stories of the hummers’ migrations between their summer breeding grounds in the United States and Canada and their winter homes in Mexico and Central America. In addition to this life history, Osborne recounts early hummingbird sightings and tells how the bird received its common and scientific names. After an overview of hummingbirds’ distinctive ways of feeding, flying, and conserving energy, she offers a detailed description of the ruby-throat that will help you tell females from males, immature birds from adults, and ruby-throats from similar species. Osborne also takes you on a visit to the “Hummer/Bird Celebration!” at Rockport, reviews hummingbird banding programs, and explains how to attract hummingbirds to your yard or apartment balcony.

A pocket-size, brilliantly colorful, simple-to-use guide tohummingbirds, containing dozens of full-color photographs that enable readers of all ages to identify the most common species; range maps; tips on attracting hummingbirds, information on habitat needs, life cycle, food preferences; and much more.

"Readers will compare key traits of ruby-throated hummingbirds?their appearance, behavior, habitat, and life cycle?to traits of other birds."--Amazon.com.

Written for a general audience, with spectacular images for birders and nature enthusiasts at every level, Hummingbirds of Texas: With Their New Mexico and Arizona Ranges reveals the enormous appeal of this tiniest and shiniest of birds. The book opens with a look at the many manifestations of the human attraction to these flying jewels, including the Hummingbird Roundup, a citizen-science project run by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, as well as the Rockport Fulton Hummer/Bird Celebration, one of several festivals dedicated to hummingbirds. The book also includes easy tips for attracting hummingbirds to your own lawn or garden, such as what to plant in the ground or in pots and how to choose and take care of feeders. The authors then showcase the nineteen different hummingbird species that have appeared in the region covered by the book. Magnificent color photographs and original artwork aid in identification and accompany descriptions, range maps, and abundance graphs for each species.

Hummingbirds have always held popular appeal, with their visual brilliance, extraordinary flight dexterity, jewel-like color, and remarkably small size. This is the first book to profile all 338 known species, from the Saw-billed Hermit to the Scintillant Hummingbird. Every bird is shown life-size in glorious full-color photographs. Every species profile includes a flight map and key statistics, as well as information about behavior, plumage, and habitat. This authoritative guide has been annotated by the world's leading experts on hummingbirds and features a foreword by renowned birding author Pete Dunne.

In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.