This is Bird Note.

It's late April in the northeast.

You've just stepped out for a breath of spring air and...

Hey, what was that?

A tiny bird just whizzed by like a bullet.

There it is over by those scarlet flowers hovering.

It's a hummingbird.

It must be a ruby-throated hummingbird.

The only hummingbird that nests in the eastern states.

No wonder it buzzed you.

You're wearing a red baseball cap.

Must have thought you were a really prize flower.

Most ruby-throated hummingbirds spend the winter in Central America.

By March, some males are already returning to the southeast,

but it's well into April before they reach the northern states.

Female hummingbirds arrive a couple weeks later

after the males have staked out breeding territories.

Males greet females with a remarkable aerial performance,

flying back and forth in a perfect arc

like a pendulum suspended on an invisible wire

and accompanied by buzzing wings and cricket-like chirps.

So fill up the hummingbird feeder, put on a red hat or jacket, and listen for a hummingbird

...