Hummingbirds were among the most intriguing species to European visitors to the Midwest in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. After all, hummingbird species are solely found in the Americas and are unknown to Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The French soldier and explorer Louis-Armand de Lahontan wrote the following in 1703 after spending years living around the Great Lakes in places like Mackinaw City and Green Bay and points west into the Upper Mississippi River Valley. According to the book “Taking Flight: A History of Birds and People in the Heart of America,” Lahontan’s writing about the Ruby-throated Hummingbird is one of the more detailed and accurate early accounts:
The Flylike Bird is no bigger than one’s Thumb, and the colour of its Feathers is so changeable, that ‘tis hard to fasten any one colour upon it. They appear sometimes red, sometimes of a Gold colour, at other times they are blew and red; and properly speaking, ‘tis only the brightness of the Sun that makes us unsensible of the change of its gold and red colours. Its beak is as sharp as a Needle. It fliers from Flower to Flower, like a Bee, and by its fluttering sucks the flowery Sap. Sometimes about Noon it pearches upon the little branches of Plum-trees or Cherry-trees.
Cardinal Flower is a showy perennial of the Bellflower family. It’s also very popular among Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. In one nearby portion of the Lake Border Upland, where the above 33 second video was taken, Cardinal Flower only took hold this year. The result was an immediate increase in hummingbird activity when blossom time came around. And you can see in these clips how hummingbirds use their bills—sharp as a needle—to access the nectar they need to get by.
Hummingbird, don't fly away