By Carmen Rioja
How was I to know that before the end of the year, a little messenger would be my great teacher? It was late afternoon and still hot outside, when suddenly a hummingbird crashed on the window pane and fell, stunned, to the ground. My dog, who is a fast hunter by instinct, ran toward the bird and caught it between the fangs of his muzzle in a second. I ran towards them almost as fast and shouted in a firm, assertive voice I didn’t know I had, “Stop! Let it go!” It seemed that watching so many episodes of César Millán’s TV show “The Dog Trainer” was worth something. To my surprise, the dog obeyed immediately, and I was able to pull the still-living hummingbird out from between his fangs. The mini-bird had its wing completely broken and bent backwards, and it was screeching in a tiny, but clear, voice.
I had never held a delicate hummingbird in my hands before, much less a wounded one. Its entire body was the size of a third of my hand, and I do have small hands.
It is said that hummingbirds are messengers from beyond, and if one comes into your life, perhaps it is a loved one who has returned to visit you. For many cultures and since pre-Hispanic times, the hummingbird represents the warrior, largely because of its bravery and fierceness to fight for its food, its territory, or to defend the nest—so much so that the main god, Huitzilopochtli, was also known as the left-handed hummingbird.
With no time to lose, I started to find out what I needed to do to cure the broken wing. In the meantime, I prepared some water with sugar, honey, and chamomile drops. Holding him without hurting him, to try to help, would be a very difficult challenge.
First, I had to gain his trust. After he was well fed and warm, I tried to immobilize the wing and see if it would heal on its own. I gently wrapped him with paper napkins to immobilize the broken wing and warm his body. I finally got him to drink nectar with his long beak directly from a soda cap. He seemed to like the food I had prepared for him. He sucked as if the soda cap was a baby bottle. I never imagined such a tiny creature could eat so much!
The hummingbird’s flapping is very fast. It is the only bird that can fly backwards or sideways and sustain the flight suspended in the air, in the same place, for up to 30 seconds and flap around 80 times per second. That is why they consume a lot of energy and can eat an amount of nectar equal to or even greater than their own weight in a single day. I was feeding him every three hours for the next couple of days. I needed him to get stronger, as apparently the wing was not sticking on its own, and every time I changed his bandage to test if he could fly yet, he seemed to suffer quite a bit.
On the third day, I learned some of his language, and I could distinguish between a song of pain and the trill of hunger with which he called me. His bodily expressions became so clear to me that I could now perfectly distinguish his snap of contentment as he sunbathed.
When he regained a little strength, I began to give him real flowers from which to suck the nectar, first cutting the flowers in the garden and then carrying him on my hand to the bougainvillea blossoms or the little red bells of the juniper. He was no longer stressed and would latch onto the flowers with his very long forked tongue, transparent as light.
I tried to restore the structure of his broken wing first with a micro drop of a surgical adhesive, like plastic surgeons do, but it didn’t work. A few days later it occurred to me to use an organic adhesive of natural rabbit glue, which gave a better result. How was I to know that, despite my best efforts, nature had other plans.
In the meantime this little being had become my sensei and was already giving me several life lessons that, without him, I would not have been able to learn.
There are more than 350 species of hummingbirds, and they are endemic to the Americas. At least 24 species are Mexican, and about 50 varieties can be observed in San Miguel de Allende and the Bajío alone. Some are migratory and can fly distances as far as Alaska to southern Mexico. A significant percentage of these little creatures are reported to be in serious danger of extinction, and they are some of the most efficient pollinators on the planet!
I don’t know if this convalescent visitor was an envoy from beyond, perhaps one of my ancestors or my father in spirit who came to greet me. What is certain is that this little hummingbird left a mark forever on my heart with fundamental teachings:
- We are all capable of cultivating tenderness. It is enough to be generous with our time and care, even with the tiniest creatures.
- Patience is the art of gentleness. Sometimes it takes a lot of patience to heal ourselves or help others to heal.
- The time of the hummingbird is also tiny. They live about three years, but life can be so intense and full that in this time fits an eternity of light.
Letting go is also an art of the sensei. When the hummingbird died a week later, without me being able to do more for it, I understood that I was forcing myself to let go of attachment. It is not always possible to retrace nature’s path, even with my “too much love.” However, before leaving, the hummingbird gave me one last sunny afternoon together, and at least he died warm and with a full belly. I didn’t manage to restore his wing and return him to the wild to take flight, but he left me with some very good lessons and skills for the next opportunity to help someone else.
If you are interested in learning more about hummingbirds, birds, bees, other pollinators, and helping them to survive, you can set up clean water dishes in gardens, nectar troughs, and seed feeders. Visit El Charco del Ingenio to learn more about the flora and fauna native to the region. Check out bird watching tours organized by Audubon. And, above all, enjoy the tiny miracles that happen all the time in nature.
Some varieties of hummingbirds in San Miguel are broad-billed hummingbirds, purple-crowned, blue-throated, ruby-throated, black-wattled, broad-tailed, and rufous-throated hummingbirds.
Contact the author at riohoja@yahoo.com.
Sources: Conabio, http://www.conabio.gob.mx/institucion/conabio_espanol/doctos/biodiver28.pdf.
