When it comes to birds that hover for a living, hummingbirds are the absolute kings. That doesn’t mean that some other species don’t also utilize hovering in their feeding techniques, at least occasionally, but hummingbirds must use hovering as their primary means of maintaining their place in front of a flower for a relative extended period of time in order to satisfy their need for nectar.

While here, east of the Mississippi, we only have one species of hummingbird, the Ruby-throated, every other species of hummingbird throughout the world (actually hummingbirds live in North, Central and South America only) has the same ability to hover in place as it feeds on nectar producing flowers and chasing insects. This male Ruby-throated Hummingbird (top) demonstrates its ability to hang in place almost as if standing still as it checks which flower it wants to feed upon. This young male, (photo 2, below) showing its one patch of red on its developing throat patch, shows how hummingbirds can come up from below a flower to get just the right angle for feeding. And finally, this female Ruby-throated Hummingbird, with no red on its throat (photo 3) attacks a flower from above and is able to hover in a down position for an extended period of time as it sips nectar from a flower from above it.

Hummingbirds have the unique ability to hover in place for a seemingly long period of time, but are also able to fly backwards, forward, and sideways as well as remain in one position, up or down, while they are feeding. They are truly amazing fliers.

Second only to hummingbirds in the ability to hover is the Kingfisher (photo 4). However, Kingfishers ability to hover is limited to hanging in one place and in one position, usually over a possible fish strike, while waiting for the fish to get in just the perfect spot for the Kingfisher to attack. They are not able to fly in all the different directions that hummingbirds can fly.

Similar to the kingfishers, Osprey (photo 5) also are able to hover for brief periods of time, probably while waiting to plunge dive for a fish. However, I have not observed any Osprey hover in one place for as long a time as kingfishers are able to hover over a fish strike.

Like kingfishers and Ospreys some species of terns sometimes hover briefly over a possible fish meal before diving down for it. Particularly Caspian Terns (photo 6) and Forsters Terns seem to utilize this brief hovering technique. And Snail Kites, such as this female, (photo 7) hover briefly sometimes before dropping down to pick up an Apple Snail.

Several years ago, Jewel and I were out with friends enjoying a pontoon boat ride on the St Lucie River when suddenly out of nowhere a drone started circling our boat. We searched both shores but could not see any possible drone operator anywhere in sight. I must say it was a very eerie feeling to know that someone was spying on us even though we were being very circumspect. We also, somehow, felt quite vulnerable.

While the drone continued to circle around and hover over our boat for some time, even as we continued moving, we did begin to ignore it after a short while as there was nothing we could do about it. (Perhaps you may have seen one of those videos where an eagle has attacked a drone flying in or about the eagle’s domain and the eagle knocked it out of commission while the drone filmed the attack. We did long to be able to do something like that, but didn’t have the eagle’s capabilities.)

The drone invading our privacy made me wonder whether a fish swimming under a hovering bird is ever aware of the bird above it, and if so, what the fish must feel about its privacy being invaded. Right up to the point that the fish becomes the bird’s next meal. It’s a harsh world out there, and truly amazing the adaptability of birds to develop feeding techniques that work for them. Just as we humans sometimes have to go to more than one store to purchase all the groceries we need. Simply another technique we humans have developed for our feeding needs.

For a video of a Red-tailed Hawk attacking a drone, see: https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&ei=UTF-8&p=hawk+attacks+a+drone+video&type=E211US885G0#id=1&vid=5c670abdf65c4d1ffd7acb73ef112732&action=click.