In September 2006, Abigail Alfano of Pine, Louisiana, trained these ruby-throated hummingbirds to feed from her hands. These hummingbirds had been visiting her hummingbird feeder. I’m envious, but I don’t have her patience. These are Alfano’s photographs.
My friend Jane knows I like hummingbirds so she emailed these photographs to me of a woman hand feeding ruby-throated hummingbirds. I immediately suspected photoshop! And not just because I didn’t believe hummingbirds would feed from a woman’s hand — hummingbirds are territorial and don’t “hang out together.” I guess they do when they’re migrating.
I immediately searched for a snopes.com article on hand-feeding hummingbirds, and amazingly it’s true. These hummingbirds live in Louisiana, where the motto is the Cajun term laisse le bon temps rouler, let the good times roll. Here, they hang out on their own Bourbon Street before they head onto southern Mexico for the winter.
Peaceable kingdom in Louisiana. Usually, ruby-throated hummingbirds will fight off rivals at the feeder, but here they are hovering together and also overlooking the fact that a human is literally handing out the treats, a cup of sugar water.
To see my less-impressive (although I was pretty proud of myself) photographs of the ruby-throated hummingbirds (one at a time) at my feeder go to Ruby-throated Hummingbird Moves into the Neighborhood and Ho, Hum, Another Hummingbird
Catherine Sherman 