Hummingbird Stories
Hummingbird in Distress — A true Story with a happy ending.
by Carol H., Ohio, USA, 2008
For two weeks in July, a female? Hummingbird came to our backyard feeder with something that resembled a "kite" attached to her foot. This was the first summer here in Ohio we had hung a hummingbird feeder on a tree outside our kitchen window. We were fascinated with all the activity, speed, and number of birds that were enjoying the nectar.
But, this little bird was apparently in distress as she was feeding frequently, every 5 to 10 minutes. She was obviously disturbed by this thing following her so closely. It looked like a white piece of cloth, about an inch or so long.
We felt so bad for her we contacted the local bird experts, "second chance wildlife", as well as the email site "world of hummingbirds" and both offered the same advice -- the bird would have to be captured and of course, not being trained as to how to even handle a delicate hummingbird, all we could do is worry and pray that somehow, this, whatever it was, would become dislodged in all her frantic activity.
Over the two week period, it did, in fact, change from white to a dirty brown and the shape became twisted looking more like a little finger than a kite.
Then we did not see her for several days, of course, unable to identify her without her "attachment." We hoped that her problem got resolved and had become dislodged from her foot.
Well, that proved exactly right, because while changing the nectar on July 31st lo and behold there was a small piece of paper under the feeder. I absent mindedly picked it up just too neat up the yard. But, when I started to throw it in the garbage, I looked at it closely and realized what I picked up -- a small, one inch, twisted piece of paper towel with a very tiny hole at one end where her foot must have been. It was flat at the other end and it dawned on me, why would a piece of paper that looked like that be under the feeder. I took it into the house in the palm of my hand and asked my husband, "What do you think this is?" He looked at it and had the same jaw dropping reaction...
We just thank her for letting us know she was ok and "it finally Came off"!
We here at the World of Hummingbirds hope you like the Hummingbird Stories and hope that you would like to contribute your hummingbird stories.
