People love the sight of hummingbirds.
Their rapid, buzzing appearance usually means that spring has finally sprung and the earth is beginning to sing in colors once more.
It’s also a time when people prepare their bird feeders so that hummingbirds will have something to munch on when they come to their houses.
The birds don’t stay but people will take any chance to make their stays longer, including providing food for them.
Many facts are known about these small birds. They eat a lot, for example, feeding themselves every 10 to 15 minutes.
They also travel over 2,000 miles twice a year during the migration seasons. And, did we mention they’re very fast birds, flying at nearly 30mph during direct flights?
They have big brains as well, literally.
Their brains make up 4.2% of their total weight.
But researchers have learned something else.
Hummingbirds can see more colors than humans.
Humans are attuned to red, green, and blue lights. Hummingbirds have one more color they are sensitive to – ultraviolet light.
Dr. Mary Caswell Stoddard, an assistant professor in the Princeton University Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, led a team of researchers and scientists for three years to learn how hummingbirds reacted to colors.
The team created outdoor experiments.
They built LED tubes that display a range of colors, including nonspectral colors. They placed these LED tubes beside two bird feeds in a meadow that was frequently visited by broad-tailed hummingbirds.
One feeder had plain water and the other feeder had sugar water. Each feeder emitted different colors and the team constantly changed the location of the feeders so the hummingbirds can’t find it automatically.
They conducted the experiments for three summers, to get the most accurate results they could.
The plain water feeder emitted green light while the sugar water emitted ultraviolet+green light.
Hummingbirds are so accurate it’s startling.
The hummingbirds get the feeder with sugar water right every time.
“It was amazing to watch,” Harold Eyster, a UBC Ph.D. student and a co-author of the study, shared. “The ultraviolet+green light and green light looked identical to us, but the hummingbirds kept correctly choosing the ultraviolet+green light associated with sugar water. Our experiments enabled us to get a sneak peek into what the world looks like to a hummingbird.”
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It was a controlled experiment.
They eliminated any other variables that could affect their experiment, including smell or another cue.
They were able to come to this conclusion after 19 experiments and 6,000 feeder visits.
“To imagine an extra dimension of color vision — that is the thrill and challenge of studying how avian perception works,” Dr. Mary Caswell Stoddard added. “Fortunately, the hummingbirds reveal that they can see things we cannot.”
Now that you know this fun and interesting fact, there’s no need to build LED tubes with ultraviolet lights.
More color is the way to go.
It is a good idea to add more colors and flowers to your garden. Add more nectar-rich flowers, tube-shaped flowers, and red flowers.
Hummingbirds are more attracted to these types of flowers while tube-shaped flowers (like foxglove flowers) are perfect for the long beaks.
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You can also paint your feeder.
A rich red color will encourage more hummingbirds to visit your house.
Remember to clean your feeder and replace the water every three days so that bacteria won’t grow. There’s nothing worse than feeding bacteria-infested food and water to visiting birds.
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Learn practical and simple ways to invite more hummingbirds into your garden in the video below!
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