Blue-throated hummingbird. Photo by Dan True

If there is one way to describe being French kissed by a hummingbird, it is "smile." Bill Calder, a veteran "bander" of these tiny creatures, does just that when he tells how he felt the tongue of a broad-tail touch his own on one of his expeditions.

"It was a female, of course," he adds with a puckish grin. This close encounter of the "hummer" kind isn't all that unusual, says Calder. A colleague of his was once licked in the ear. For the salt, he figures.

Every summer during the peak of the migration season, he bands in New Mexico's beautiful Gila Forest near Silver City. The Continental Divide, which runs through the forest, is a migration superhighway for feathered travelers. (Hummers are the smallest of these; they fly the greatest distance each year.)

Calder, Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona, Tucson, calls it a "crossroads" because so many hummers banded in this locale are recovered in other places, such as Washington State and Colorado.

Watching the "Master Bander's" face whern he tells about netting a "magnificent" in Trout Valley he'd banded there two years earlier is much like seeing someone who just won the lottery.He has followed hummingbird migration paths from as far south as Guadalajara, Mexico, up to Juneau, Alaska.

Various sources have reported at least thirteen species of hummingbirds in New Mexico, which ranks it as fourth in the country. In Trout Valley and the surrounding area of the Gila Forest, at least three kinds nest and breed consistently: the broad-tail, black-chinned, and the magnificent, which is the second largest male hummer to breed in the United States and Canada.

Hummingbirds are only found in the western hemisphere, so they are absent from the traditional fairy tales, legends and myths of all but North and South American cultures.

In Peru, an ancient artist carved out an image of a hummingbird so large that it can only be recognized at about 1,000 feet in the air. If this seems like an extreme preoccupation with hummers, perhaps the craftsman can be better understood by considering where he lived.

These iridescent "flower birds," or, "flower kissers," as the Brazilian Portuguese still call them, were considered gifts from the gods, and their messengers, as well. In Peru and other South American countries at or near the equator, there are over 300 varieties. It is believed that all have not been discovered yet.

Maybe in primordial times the rain forests of South Ameri

ca are where the first hummingbird opened its eyes and looked around for the nearest flower to eat from and pollinate.

In the folklore of Mexico there are stories of love and romance associated with hummingbirds. In ancient times, stuffed hummers were worn as lucky charms to bring success in matters of the heart. Even today dead hummingbirds are sold as amulets. There is also a practice that still persists of drying the heart of one of these birds, then grinding it into a powder which is used in love potions.

Fortunately, most people in the world simply prefer to watch hummingbirds. Nothing in nature captures the eye like these multi-colored creatures. When they hover in the sunlight, they bring to the imagination images of rainbows, jewels, and the realm of fairies.

In his novel, Green Mansions, W. H. Hudson asked: "Have you ever observed a hummingbird moving about in an aerial dance among the flowers?" He went on to express the sense of seeing ". . . a living prismatic gem that changes its colors with every change of position . . . how in turning it catches the sunshine on its burnished neck and gorget plumes . . . green and gold and flame-colored . . . it is a creature of such fairy-like loveliness as to mock all description."

Male rufous hummingbird Photo by Dan True

One Apache legend tells of Wind Dancer, a young deaf warrior who sang magical, wordless songs that brought healing and good weather. He loved a young woman named Bright Rain. The warrior died tragically and a bitter winter ensued, but it suddenly and mysteriously ended after Bright Rain began taking solitary walks. Wind Dancer had come back to her in the form of a hummingbird. He wore the same bright ceremonial costume he'd worn as a man, and in fields of flowers he would approach her and whisper his magical secrets in her ear. This brought her peace and joy.

Who knows? Perhaps the Indian legend came into being in the Gila Forest, where thousands of these tiny, burnished creatures converge every Spring. Sun-up to sun-down, they dart from flower to feeder to flower, defying gravity, upside down and backwards, with wing-beats so fast all we can see is a blur.

Beginning May 26, 2001, in a four consecutive weekend event, hummer lovers from various countries and states as far-flung as Florida and New York will be visiting the Greyfeather Lodge at Sapillo Crossing, in the heart of the Gila Forest, for the third annual Hummingbird Festival.

Experts from all over the Southwest will be on hand to share their experiences, artwork and hummer photos, including Joan Day-Martin, New Mexico's only Certified Bander

And of course on these festival weekends and every day in between during the peak season there will be continuous appearances by thousands of the bewitching star performers. Around the 40 feeders at Greyfeather, appreciative audiences will gather just to watch them do what they always do, which is dazzle, delight, enchant. . . and inspire smiles.