  The Joy of Hummingbirds
Nothing in nature captures the eye like hummingbirds.
When they hover in a sunbeam, flashing their metallic, boldly colored gorgets, they set
the imagination on fire. Tradition has associated hummingbirds with the rainbow, with
jewels, and with the faery realm.
In his novel, Green Mansions, W.H. Hudson asked
these questions:
| Have you ever observed a
humming-bird moving about in an aerial dance among the flowers --a living prismatic gem that changes its colours
with every change of position
--how in turning it catches the sunshine
on its burnished neck and gorget plumes
--green and gold and flame-coloured, the
beams changing to visible flakes as they fall, dissolving into nothing, to be succeeded by
others and yet others:
In its exquisite form, its changing
splendor, its swift motions and intervals of aerial suspension, it is a creature of such
fairy-like loveliness as to mock all description.
And have you seen this same fairly-like
creature suddenly perch itself on a twig, in the shade,
its misty wings and fanlike tail folded,
the iridescent glory vanished,
looking like some common dull-plumaged
little bird sitting listless in a cage?" |
The on-again-off-again beauty of
hummingbirds is ethereal. Their feathers seem to glow with inner light. When we close our
eyes the images of these lively little beings seem to linger on the backs of our eye-lids.
If we let them, they fly directly into the soul, bypassing all our ideas and theories.
D. H. Lawrence once wrote a poem about the dawn of
creation when an enormous hummingbird was flying out on the leading edge of time as the
world took shape behind it. Real hummers, of course, are tiny, but there is a sense in
which the world is indeed created anew every time a hummingbird flies. When our eyes
follow them, we see beauty unfolding. Hummers dart through woods or meadows like tiny
elves or fairies who know exactly where they want to go. They whir buzz, and zoom from one
splash of color to the next, approaching red or blue flowers with wing-beats so fast all
can we see is a blur.
As creatures that move and live and have their being
around irises and penstemons, hummingbirds pause magically in the air, defying gravity,
aiming their needle-like beaks into the sweet inner mysteries of the flowers, then they
plunge head first, half disappearing. Coming back out, they fly backwards, sometimes
covered with pollen. Hummingbirds are fully alive and insanely happy. These dazzling
little creatures have a radiance about them. They give the human heart something it deeply
needs.
Hummingbird
Legends
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