A flash of emerald green, a clicking tchik-tchik call and the beat of a pair of tiny wings, it’s not a large bee or butterfly but the hummingbird, colibri or chupaflor in Spanish or ts’unu’un in Maya. You’ll see them in the gardens at Royal Resorts and elsewhere in the Mexican Caribbean. These busy and beautiful little birds are such accomplished fliers, moving so quickly that that they are almost impossible for us to keep track of. They can rotate their wings like helicopter propellers, fly backwards – the only bird to do so –, hover and fly straight up and down, just like a minute chopper.
Hummingbirds are native to the Americas and there are 330 species spread through the tropical lowlands and the cooler highlands as far south as the mountain forests of the Andes. Fifty species are found in southeast Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula has 11 of them, equally at home in gardens, mangroves, jungle and dry forest and scrub. With their long bills and tongues, they sip the nectar in flowers and are one of the area’s most effective pollinators.
With epithets like emerald, sapphire, comet, fairy, “hummer” names pay tribute to their jewel-like plumage. Here in the Yucatán, the ruby-throated, cinnamon, green-breasted mango, white-bellied emerald, rufous-tailed and buff-bellied are the most common varieties of hummingbird.
Most hummingbirds measure between six and 13 centimeters and some reach a whopping 20 centimeters. They weigh almost nothing, between two and nine grams. The smallest bird in the world is the aptly named bee hummingbird that is endemic to Cuba.
Male hummers tend to have brighter plumage than the hens although some species called hermits are a muted grey-green or brown color.
Always on the Move
Hummingbirds obtain their energy from constant meals of nectar and the occasional insect and spider. Feeding is impossible at night and the hummingbird goes into a nocturnal torpor similar to the state of hibernation in order to conserve its energy and body weight.
The tiny nests are woven from cobwebs, moss, straw and kapok silk from the ceiba tree and located in carefully chosen sites among the highest and thinnest branches, as far away from predators as possible. The hens usually lay two eggs and remain in the nest to keep them warm for two or three weeks until they hatch. Both parents feed the featherless chicks with regurgitated nectar until they are ready to leave the nest and take flight for themselves. They grow quickly and soon become fiercely territorial despite their diminutive size.
Hummingbirds are known to have feeding routes through their territory and will visit the same flowers or shrubs every day at the same time.
However, even more incredible is that some of these minute birds are migratory. Each year the ruby-throated hummingbird makes the grueling journey from Texas to the Yucatán Peninsula to escape the winter chill; a non-stop flight across the Gulf of Mexico that takes 30 hours!
An Ancient God
The pre-Hispanic cultures of Mexico revered this shimmering bird and the Maya and Aztecs imbued it with sacred powers. They watched it drinking nectar from flowers with its needle-like bill and likened it to bloodletting. Accordingly, the knives that they used in sacrificial rituals were often shaped like a hummer’s beak. At the Temple of the Jaguars in Chichén Itzá, a hummingbird is depicted piercing a human heart emerging from a flower.
In western Mexico, the Purupecha or Tarascan culture that settled on the shores of Lake Patzcuaro in Michoacán named their principal city Tzintzuntzán, which means “place of the hummingbirds.”
The Aztecs also took note of the bird’s aggressive nature and courage and associated it with their war god, Huitzilopochtli, which in the ancient Nahuatl language means “hummingbird on the left” or “hummingbird of the south.” The bloodthirsty god is depicted wearing a hummingbird headdress and rulers would often incorporate hummingbird feathers in their ceremonial capes. Furthermore, they believed that the birds were actually the spirits of dead warriors who had fallen in battle or perished on the sacrificial altar. These chosen ones joined the sun’s radiant cortege on its daily journey across the heavens for four years and when their mission ended, they returned to earth as hummingbirds. Their iridescent plumage was said to be the result of their close contact with the divine light.
Where to See Hummingbirds
Here in the Yucatán Peninsula, you can often see hummingbirds flitting from flower to flower on tropical shrubs such as hibiscus, ixora, oleander and jasmine in gardens or perching on branches for an occasional rest. You may even hear their high-pitched clicking call. Certain kinds of tree such as the ceiba and wild tamarind attract them in the archaeological sites of Chichén Itzá, Uxmal and Cobá and you’ll also see them in the nature parks of Xcaret and Xel-Há and Puerto Morelos Botanical Garden. Hummingbirds gather in jungle clearings in Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, and the path from the ancient Mayan site of Muyil to the lagoon of the same name is a good place to spot them. Book your tours to the archaeological sites and nature reserves of the area with Thomas More Travel and ask about the new jungle bird watching trip now available to the Puerto Morelos area.
