At the himba of Namibia in Southern Africa, the date of birth of a child is fixed, not at the time of its arrival in the world, nor in its design, but much earlier: since the day the child is thought in His Mother's mind.⠀

When a woman decides she's going to have a child, she settle down and rests under a tree, and she listens until she can hear the song of the child who wants to be born. And after she heard this child's song, she comes back to the man who will be the father of the child to teach him that song. And then, when they make love to physically design the child, they sing the song of the child, to invite him.⠀

When the mother is pregnant, she teaches the singing of this child to the midwives and older women of the village. So, when the child is born, old women and people around him sing his song to welcome him.⠀

As the child grows, the other villagers learn his song. So if the child falls, or gets hurt, he always finds someone to pick him up and sing his song. Similarly, if the child does something wonderful, or successfully passes through the rites of passage, the people of the village sing his song to honor him.⠀

In the tribe, there is another opportunity where villagers sing for the child. If, at any time during his life, the person commits an aberrant crime or social act, the individual is called in the centre of the village and the people of the community form a circle around him. Then they sing his song.⠀

The tribe recognizes that the correction of antisocial behaviour does not pass through punishment, it is by love and reminder of identity. When you recognize your own song, you don't want or need to do anything that would harm the other.⠀

And the same way through their lives. In Marriage, songs are sung together.⠀

And when he gets old and he is lying in his bed, ready to die, all the villagers will gather besides him to sing his song for him for the last time.

Intro

Because these tiny and beautiful creatures are so rarely seen in 1986 I decided to attempt to attract them to our location in Salt Springs, Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada. 

Starting off the first year with a few birds the video below will show my success in creating several large Charms of Hummingbirds. (A large number of Hummingbirds is known as a Charm of Hummingbirds)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dla1WbeDoYc&feature=youtu.be

Hummingbirds are BIG eaters. No animal on earth has a faster metabolism-roughly 100 times that of an elephant. Hummingbirds burn food so fast they often eat 1.5 to 3 times their body weight in food per day! In order to gather enough nectar, hummingbirds must visit hundreds of flowers every day.

A Ruby-throated Hummingbird weighs about 3 gram, or 1/10 an ounce. If you assume the bird eats twice its weight a day in nectar, and that it gets all its food from the feeder, that's 2/10 an ounce per day per bird. A 16-ounce feeder could thus feed 80 birds a day, assuming no leakage and no other entities are also feeding. Our Hummingbirds this year are consuming two and sometimes three liters a day.

Here are the 21 Hummingbirds found in the U.S. and Canada. All are western birds with the exception of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird and the Bahama Woodstar:

Common Hummingbirds:
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  (east)

Black-chinned Hummingbird  (low mountains)
Costa's Hummingbird  (dry areas)
Anna's Hummingbird (west coast)
Broad-tailed Hummingbird (mountains)
Calliope Hummingbird (mountains)
Rufous Hummingbird (pacific northwest to Alaska)
Allen's Hummingbird (California coast)

Southwest Arizona Specialties:
Berylline Hummingbird (very rare)
Violet-crowned Hummingbird
Lucifer Hummingbird
Broad-billed Hummingbird
White-eared Hummingbird (very rare)
Blue-throated Hummingbird
Magnificent Hummingbird
Plain-capped Starthroat (very rare)

Texas Specialties:
Green Violet-ear (very rare)
Green-breasted Mango (very rare)
Buff-bellied Hummingbird

California and Florida Specialties:
Xantus's Hummingbird (CA - very, very rare)
Bahama Woodstar (FL - very, very rare)