The Way I See It - Beauty or Beast?
Permalink +Wed, Feb 10, 2010, 4:59 am // Ham Hayes
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Violet Sabrewing
Headed for a Meal
Photo: Ham Hayes, Monteverde, Costa Rica
I have a favorable view of hummingbirds. They are colorful and entertaining. There are about 330 species and they live only in the New World. They include the smallest birds in the world and have unique flying skills that amaze those of us who have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning, let alone getting off the ground. Their speed ranges from zero (hovering) up to 40 miles per hour. They are incredibly robust, living in rainforests, high mountains and deserts. Their breeding grounds range from Alaska in the north to Tierra del Fuego in the south. The remarkable and variable coloring of hummingbirds is a result of the refraction and absorption of light in the feathers and not of pigments.
The small size of hummingbirds means their bodies have a low volume-to-surface area. For us non-technical folks, that results in high heat loss for the hummingbird when compared to other animals. Small size also requires a high wing beat rate to stay in the air, in some cases up to 70 beats per second. All of this adds up to a high metabolism and the need for lots of high energy food. Naturally occurring flower nectars and some occasional insects for protein are the hummingbird’s principle diet. To sustain themselves, they must eat about half their body weight each day. For a 150 pound human, that would be 75 pounds of food, and imagine most of that in the form of soft drinks. The energy consumption rate is so high that food ingestion is needed every 15 to 20 minutes for survival. To help them survive, hummingbirds also have the ability to drop their metabolism while sleeping or under cold weather conditions. This results in a state of torpor where their body temperature may reach ambient air temperatures.
Behaviorally, hummingbirds are quite aggressive and pugnacious. They are territorial, especially during mating season and often around food supplies. They have been known to chase everything from butterflies to eagles. At times, they will duel to the death with their own kind. That kind of behavior shouldn’t be surprising given how critical access to food is for them. In fact all life forms consume nutrients, create waste and reproduce, whether they are hummingbirds, amoeba or humans. Standing in a hummingbird garden amid several dozen birds that are actively eating and battling each other is reminiscent of watching Congress. Certainly taxpayer dollars are consumed at an alarming rate, a lot of waste is created and the fighting is certainly to the political death. And both “hummers” and Congress members seem to successfully reproduce.
It is unlikely humans could survive in the wild. Unlike hummingbirds, we don’t have the built-in tools like wings and beaks to do so. The possible exceptions are our opposable thumbs and large brains. Our tools are adaptive. They aren’t designed for specific purposes like extracting nectar from flowers. Our tools are designed so we can build whatever specific tools we need. More importantly, our tool making requires cooperation and collaboration between individual members of our species. So we have the ability to build an axe, a hoe, a language and even a Congress. But success will come only if we work together. Like the hummingbird, we still seem to have voracious appetites. Our thumbs and brains are often used to protect territory and defeat competitors just as the hummers do. But without some mastery and control of our appetites, we can take those behaviors to self defeating extremes. Whether we label our most precious tool the “brain” or “mind” or “consciousness” or “spirit” doesn’t matter. Its function is what is important. That function is to create the common tools we all need and use to survive and prosper together on this planet. This is especially true of our higher social and political institutions.
We are a work in progress. We need to be mindful of the power we have. After all, it would be nice to continue to hang around with the hummingbirds.
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