An "In Your Face" Hummingbird

[Bugbear]

Earlier today, a hummingbird decided to slowly hover up to inches in front of my face to get at some citrus flowers; I was sitting on a low bench between the citrus. I've never had one get that close; there's usually a few out there along with ten million bees, and none of them have ever gotten in my face like that.

The strange part was, while I wasn't scared, his humming sound caused a feeling in my stomach area as if I was scared, kind of like my body was reacting. It was a little disturbing to feel the air fanning off of his wing's in my face, too.

And no, I don't have any pictures.

[azwildcat96]

That is an awesome feeling! We have a hummingbird aviary near us where you can sit beneath the trees and experience exactly what you described. We also get wild hummingbirds in our backyard, but they typically dive-bomb our heads rather than hover around us.

[Tobus]

We have a plethora of hummingbirds that visit our flowerbed in front of our house too. And like azwildcat96, they're usually dive-bombing us. It's very interesting to watch their interactions. They seem to be very territorial, and will chase each other away from the food source. A couple of the more dominant ones will hang out in nearby tree limbs to ambush the others.

And then they do a mating dance where one of them goes back and forth in front of the other very fast, making a sort of whistle sound with his wings.

I've had them hover within arm's reach of me, but never close enough to feel the wind from his wings on my face. That must have been weird! I know what you mean about the disturbing feeling being near them. I think it's the sound that they make: it sounds like a huge insect, and our instinct tells us to be alarmed.

[Bugbear]

Oh ya, I've been dive bombed by them. And like you say, they tend to keep an arms distance, like if i move by one, it moves away. That spot is where I usually work on container plants, and sometimes they are fighting over that area.

It was just a strange, almost panic-like feeling in my gut that I had no conscious control over, and at the same time, I had a fluttering feeling in my gut that was in time with the bird sound that almost tickled. I don't know how else to describe it.

[Kiltboy]

If the hummingbirds get close enough, their wing flapping will cause tremendous air vibrations. They only bother me when I wear my red hat or red shirt. They love red. If I "tone it down", they ignore me completely.

[Brian K]

My parents live in a log cabin they built about 15 years ago.It's about a mile out of town, and they are surrounded by wildlife.

The first Spring they lived there my mother put up a hummingbird feeder. They took to it right away. When it first went up the birds were a bit skittish and would flee if someone came out on the porch. Now there can be several of us out there and they come and go just like we're not there. We can even be sitting right under the feeder and they don't seem to care.

Even from a few feet away the thrum of their wings vibrates through my body. I'm glad you had this experience. You're a lucky man,

Regards,

Brian

[Bugbear]

Thanks Brian.
Yes, I have a whole bunch of hummingbird favored flowers growing on my property; those, of course, overlap with the bees, butterflies, et al. It's like a big nectar feeder out there.

Kiltboy, I looked up the red effect in "Stokes Hummingbird Book," and they say the bees don't see the red so well, and the hummingbirds learn to hunt out the red flowers and the color red. Some of the red flowers are adapted just for hummingbirds.

I didn't look up what my bee books say about the red flowers; I do seem to remember that they see a color range up in UV, or something like that.

[O'Gallchobhair of Donegal]

Reading this brings back memories of sitting on my grandma's back porch in the afternoon and laughing at her hummingbirds dive bombing us. She always kept three feeders full. Made the mix herself. I still remember cleaning up the red in the kitchen.

[BoldHighlander]

Cool!

Many moons ago, one morning I was sitting, kind of hidden, on the steps of my Mom's back deck (the railings of which are overgrown with some kind of trailing/flowering plant), drinking a cup of joe & enjoying the early morning sun when all of a sudden I became aware of deep humming/vibrating sound.
There, within 12" of my face hovered a hummingbird, who seemed curious about me. I just sat there eyeing him, and after about 30 seconds or so he flew off.

Obviously that's a memory etched forever in my mind

[Bugbear]

Ya, BoldHighlander, I don't think I will soon forget this one, either.

I did look up, in a couple of my bee books, whether bees could see the red flowers. They probably see red as black, and they have a UV range along with the other colors.

A red flower might have UV markings on it, but red with no UV reflection and no scent means the flower is not attracting bees. If it has downward or sideways facing, tubular, red flowers with no scent, the plant is probably adapted mainly for hummingbirds. That's from the hummingbird book I mentioned before.