from FELICIA SERVETZ' JOURNAL

The smallest birds in the world, the hummingbird, seem to be attracted to some of the most beautiful plants ever seen. Very early in the morning, these tiny birds, most about the size of a large beetle, are busy gathering nectar from the flowering trees and plants of Belize. They seem to have a schedule for going to each nectar station. The first stop is the Bird-of-Paradise plant that looks like an orange and purple regal bird with a crown. The Bird-of-Paradise plant is a sort of silhouette that just glances out from the side and never seems to look right at you. The little hummingbird hovers effortlessly over each blossom, sipping insects as well as nectar through his elongated beak. Every so often the hummer will perch on a branch and clean its extraordinarily long tongue. To someone who doesn't know what he's doing, it might look like he's spitting out water, but he's using his bottle bristle-like tongue to cleanse his palate before moving on.

Now it's on to the heliconia plant with its long, cut green leaves and yellow, orange and red flowers that resemble a string of lobster claws lined up all in a row. The challenge of extracting the nectar from this unusual-looking flower is truly one of skill for the small hummingbird. Here it has to hover along the edges of the flower and accurately place its beak inside the small opening which looks like it was made exclusively for the hummers.

The last stop is the beautiful mimosa tree with its bright red flower that looks like a miniature bouquet just waiting to be picked and then given to a sweetheart. The little birds move so quickly from one bouquet to the next it seems like they just can't make up their minds which one they like the best.

When I first observed them, they were darting in and out of the trees and plants in a way that did not seem to be very organized. I thought they were doing their best trying to avoid being seen. After a week of watching them, I came to realize that they really don't care if you watch them or not. Their main focus is to collect the nectar from the fullest blossoms and keep any other hummers away from the limited amount of nectar. These birds are really focused! I came to within six inches of one and it didn't fly away, just kept right on sipping.

Male hummingbirds are territorial, and will often fight with other males or females for the nectar. They don't care if the other hummers are the same species or not. As I watched them chase each other, it sometimes reminded me of brothers and sisters quarreling over which one was going to get the largest ice cream cone - and heaven help any of the neighbor kids who tried to get any.

There were many different sounds we heard the hummingbirds make, from a squeeky-toy sound and a trill with different pitches to a variety of other sounds during a chase. These sounds reminded me of a group of young children playing a game in the distance.

Most hummingbirds like to stay at the edges of the rainforest and do not usually go into the interior. The hummingbirds we observed seemed to prefer to feed between 5:30 and 6:30 in the early morning. We saw a few drinking at midday and only an occasional one or two in the afternoons.

We observed six different species at our three locations within the Chan Chich Lodge compound: the Long-Tailed Hermit, the Green-breasted Mango, the Canivet's Emerald, and the Rufous-tailed Hummingbird. There are many more species that frequent this part of the world, and hopefully, we will return some day to see them all.