Sharp Skinned

This one showed up early this morning and attempted to catch breakfast, but failed 3 times.  It’s not an easy hunt for young raptors, many of them starve to death before they learn the best ways.

Fight For Life

I never knew that Road Runners would take other birds for consumption.  Today was another example I’ve seen since I’ve been here in the high desert.  This road runner has caught a small house finch  and she is fighting for her life.  I’m afraid she lost the fight.

History

The Maya Indians believe that the Great God has leftover pieces after making all of the other birds. The Great God did not want to waste any pieces, so he used the leftovers to create a hummingbird. The Great God wanted to make sure the hummingbird could fly well, being so small. So the Great God gave the hummingbird the gift of extraordinary flight with the ability to fly forward, backwards, hover, and even upside-down. As the hummingbird flew up above the Great God, the wings made a humming sound of dzu-nu-ume, dzu-nu-ume. Because of this the Mayas called the hummingbird Dzunuume or The Hummer. The Great God liked this little bird so much; he made another as a mate for the first. The Great God told to couple that this was their wedding day. All of the other animals in the forest came for the first ever wedding. All the birds sang. The spiders made a path of spider-webs and told the female to use them for her nest later. Everything was beautiful, except for the hummingbirds. All the hummingbirds had where plain grey feather and looked quite ugly. All of the other birds offered some of their beautiful feathers to decorate the first bride and groom. The Sun soon after came out and pronounced them married. The Sun also promised that forever more, the hummingbird’s feathers would gleam with magic as long as the hummingbird looked toward the sun. The Mayas also believed when the Sun wishes to court the moon, he will disguise himself as a hummingbird.

I stole this right from this web page on Humming Birds