Essay/Term paper: The hummingbird

Essay, term paper, research paper:  English

I eased behind the huge mass of nesting material and took a firm
hold of several strands, I then pulled back, quickly, to pull them
free. The jarring concussion, which followed, took me by suprise.
I tried to get my bearings as the ground rushed up to meet me and
recovered about two feet from the ground. After that near miss I
climbed back to the altitude I had been at and started searching
for my tormentor. I realized that I had grabbed hold of a human's
hair and that he had not been happy about it. He was rubbing his
head and throwing immense volumes of noise at me. Hummingbirds make
mistakes just like everyone else and more than most when trying to
build and protect a nest.

I decided that I should look elsewhere and settled on a lovely
little spider web. I dove toward it, feeling the thrum of my wings
and hearing the whoosh of the wind flowing past. The web glowed
gold in the morning sunlight and dew drops hanging from it shone
like liquid fire. A gnat flew too close and I captured it with a
snap of my long tongue. Snaring a long piece of the silk, I
immediately ascended, looking for my tree. My mate was awaiting my
return, and was soon rewarded as I pulled up to the carefully
camouflaged nest. I passed the silken strand over to her and left
to find some food.

The humans are very good to us and hang tremendous reservoirs of
nectar from various limbs and rafters. The containers come in all
shapes and colors but they all have red bases. I headed for one of
these and saw one of my rival males. He instantly attacked,
chirping his anger at my intrusion. I counterattacked and we began
a dogfight. Up and down, we came, zooming into space and plummeting
to the ground. Although he was a willing and able opponent, I
eventually wore him down, and he then left the scene.
I held a precise hover as my tongue formed a tube, then I began
slurping the sweet nectar from the feeder. Although I only weigh
about one half of an once, I consume twice that much food every
day. I captured a dozen mosquitoes on my way back to the nest and
then sat on the nest to keep the eggs warm while my mate went in
search of food.

Sitting in the nest is a luscious feeling. The eggs are warm and
the inside of the nest is silky and soft. My counterpart
constructed the nest from our downy feathers and spider's silk. My
mate designed and constructed the nest, and the lichens and bark
conceal it from predators. The first nest, which we had, was not as
well built and a Blue Jay came and ate the eggs. I arrived just as
the Blue Jay attacked the nest. He rammed it twice and knocked the
eggs out. The eggs fell to the ground and the jay went after them.
I charged, feeling the intense rush that my fury gave me.I felt no
fear as I beheld the onrushing behemoth. Such was my courage that
I hardly noticed the crushing slap of collision as I assaulted him
repeatedly. Finally, I had to accept defeat though and recognize
that my defence was futile.

This time all was not to be in vain though, as I felt the slight
tap of the chicks trying to free themselves. They escaped after a
few minutes and, I witnessed the miracle that we had brought about.
Two baby hummingbirds lay there, chirping for food.
Each was no larger than a bumblebee, but they were just as loud as
I am when defending my life. My mate took over and began feeding
them. Soon, they were asleep, blissfully unaware of the dangers all
around. Life is, truly, a wonder to behold.