Hummingbird Scout

Zippy is scouting the horizon for any threats to his food from high upon the top of my neighbor's ocotillo. He has amazing sight and hearing.

I know that hummingbird vision is much more discriminating than ours; they can see things that are further away and are able to see a wider spectrum of colors than we can. Their vision is so sensitive that they can see into the ultraviolet range. They are especially attracted to the color red; apparently the intensity of the color is much stronger in their brains.

Of course hummingbirds reacts to what they see much more quickly than we can, given their wing beats/second. A hummingbird’s hearing is also more finely tuned than ours. It can hear higher-pitched sounds than we can, and can hear small differences in sound quality that our ears just simply can’t detect.

He will sit in that ocotillo for minutes on end, either resting between drinks or obviously looking around himself for threats. Hummingbirds are amazing creatures.

Zippy packs a lot of entertainment in that little three inch body.