Hummingbirds arrive at my mountain home in Colorado in the Spring after migrating about 1,000 to 1,500 miles from Mexico, their winter home. These tiny finger-sized flying jewels are speed demons and flying aces, One species nests and raise their young in my yard every summer – the Broad-tailed hummingbird. They build their teeny nests in big conifer and aspen trees here, where the eggs hatch midsummer and are fed and taken care of by the moms. When the newly hatched babies ‘fledge’, or take their first flight after just weeks, the parents bring them to nectar feeders out my windows and the tribe grows.

Around August two more species show up at the feeders, the Rufous and Caliopes join the crowds at feeders . These astounding long-range migrators fly 4,000 miles one way, from Mexico to Alaska and Northwest Canada. When calculated relative to their 3 inch body size, this makes that incredible journey one of the longest migrations of any bird in the world. They arrive here after already flying sound over 2,000 miles on their way to winter headquarters in Mexico and southern parts of Texas. For several weeks, there are as many as 10 or 15 of all three species, the parents and newly born, conducting spectacular air shows, spinning and darting at and with each other as they practice aerial maneuvers. By the end of September, sometimes after winter snows and frosts have already arrived, they finally all take their leave and go south on that long migration to live on the nectar of tropical flowers.