Our tiny side yard becomes an aviary

We had new windows installed throughout our 100+-year-old house a few years ago, including a fair-sized picture window in the dining room. We don’t see an ocean vista or mountain view through it, just a few feet of weedy ground, our air-conditioning unit, a wood fence and our neighbor’s house (which property, by the way, sports a Russian thistle tall enough to show a couple of feet above the six-foot fence). But that expanse of glass encouraged placement of a few birdfeeders, including one full of finch mix and another filled with sugar water. We also put out a potted plant that offers bright red blooms all summer (I’d identify that plant here, but I’m too lazy to look it up).

My friend Colin Andrews made these photos and put together this mug shot of a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Throughout the season, the number and variety of birds visiting the feeder and cleaning up seed from the ground has grown. On any given day, we’ll spot 10 or 15 American Goldfinches, the occasional House Finch, five or six Mourning Doves, Blue Jays, Common Grackles, Downy Woodpeckers, American Robins, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers, House Sparrows (of course) and, most rewarding of all, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. We know of at least two who make regular visits, and there are probably more.

We’re not sure whether the two hummers we see are both female, or juvenile males or females. We’re just happy to see them. We’ve been trying for several years to attract the only species of hummingbird seen regularly in the eastern half of the United States without a lot of luck. Now we catch sight of them often as we pass the window.

So what’s the big deal about these little birds? Hummingbirds are just plain fun to watch. They’re unbelievably tiny, and their acrobatics are impressive, whether they’re hovering at the feeder or a flower or zipping to and fro as though they’re evading some invisible bogey bird, or maybe oversized bumble bee. Sometimes they’ll stop their blur-winged flight long enough to sit on a perch and sip the sugar water leisurely, but that lasts only a few seconds.

It’s always a surprise to see a hummingbird. I’m not sure why. After all, the Goldfinches are more spectacularly colorful, and the blue jays make a much louder and more frenetic entrance on our little stage. Maybe it’s the hummers’ sheer tinyness that does it or their quick comings and goings. Sometimes you can’t be sure, at least at first, whether you’re seeing spots before your eyes or a cicada buzzing by. Then you glimpse that long needle of a bill and the bird’s astonishing hover-craft, and all you can do is stand and stare, hoping it will stay around just a few moments longer.