Hummingbird Spinoffs?

Our summer visitors -- the hummingbirds -- are busier that ever at the feeders, draining them by early afternoon. I suspect that their first hatchlings are now a-wing, thus the increased demand.

Hummers are noisy,  contentious little critters, especially the males who spend at least three-quarters of their energy running others off. It's hard to watch their buzzing, swooping air battles without being reminded of the tie fighters in Star Wars. Were the creators of these highly maneuverable movie space craft inspired by hummingbirds? Tie fighters even make a similar buzzing noise!

When I took these pictures, there were five or six (hard to be sure) hummingbirds fighting for places at the juice bar but I could never manage to capture more that three at once.

I've cherished another theory about humming birds -- wondering if they could have been the inspiration for the multi-winged seraphim described in the Bible and pictured below in this picture by Jan van Eyck. (Stigmatization of St. Francis.)

Alas, a quick visit to Mr. Google told me that hummingbirds are only found in the Americas -- though hummingbird-like fossils from 30 million years ago have been found in the Old World.

So much for my lovely theory. 

I did find a nice image of a hummer from the Nazca Desert in Peru...

 

 Inspiring little creatures!