Have you seen her? Ana Luisa Figueroa has been traipsing about now for the past three months hunting butterflies as she goes. Not just all around El Refugio de Potosí, but in the mangroves, the palm forests, the sand dunes and the brush. She is here to make the first scientific study of the species of butterflies that live all around us and to take a population census in order to establish a base line for future studies. All of this to achieve her dream of becoming a biologist and to spend her life working to help preserve Mexico’s incredible biological diversity. Mexico is home to 10% of the butterfly species in the world with far more species than all of Australia. Guerrero alone hosts 777 different species. Most butterfly studies have been done in mountain and cloud forest areas, so Ana Luisa’s study is particularly important for our area. Thanks to Ana Luisa we enjoyed a delightful presentation on her work to date at El Refugio de Potosí this past week.

Mariposa is the Spanish word for butterfly, but in Náhuatl, the language of the Aztecs, the name for butterflies is papálotl. Butterflies are represented in the iconography and the myths of Mesoamerican civilizations, symbolizing movement, representing heroes or important people and gods. Papálotl were even paid as tribute, after all, they are indeed as lovely as jewels. If you visit Teotihuacán you can visit the temple of papálotl and enjoy the incredible friezes with carved Xochiquetzal mariposas, one representation of diurnal “beautiful flower” butterflies. This butterfly goddess symbolized love and movement, protected flowers and vegetation, was considered the mother of artisans as well as a representation of beauty. The nocturnal butterflies had their own god; Itzpapálotl. These dark butterflies symbolized movement too, the movement of souls in death and the god of human sacrifice. Today in Mexico, during the ceremonies honoring ones departed family members; the Day of the Dead, mariposas are considered representations of souls returning for their annual visit. Now I have to say that I always thought that the idea of butterflies as returning souls was related to the annual migration of monarch butterflies that gets underway right around Day of the Dead – October 31. Little did I know that butterflies as a symbol for souls was so ancient. Now when you see a butterfly in your garden, you might want to greet it warmly, you just never know who it might be!

Hasta la Vista!

More than you ever wanted to know about hummingbirds with many thanks to the World of Hummingbirds website! See the link here.

http://www.worldofhummingbirds.com/nest.php

• There are, according to the IOC, 338 species of hummingbirds. Only ten species of hummers have significant ranges north of Mexico!!!!
• Females find iridescent feathers attractive.
• Hummingbirds do not mate for life.
• Male hummingbirds do not help raise the young.
• Female hummingbirds do all the nest building.
• A hummingbird baby is about the size of a penny.
• Females will lay a clutch of two eggs.
• Baby hummingbirds cannot fly.
• Baby hummingbirds will remain in a nest for three (3) weeks.
• Most hummingbirds die in the first year of life.
• A hummingbird will take about 250 breaths per minute while at rest.
• A hummingbird’s metabolism is roughly 100 times that of an elephant.
• Hummingbirds have very weak feet and can barely walk. They prefer to fly.
• Hummingbirds do like to perch and spend most of their life perching.
• A hummingbird’s brain is 4.2% of its body weight, the largest proportion in the bird kingdom.
• Hummingbirds are very smart and they can remember every flower they have been to, and how long it will take a flower to refill.
• Hummingbirds can hear better than humans
• Hummingbirds can see farther than humans.
• Hummingbirds can see ultraviolet light.
• Hummingbirds have no sense of smell.
• Hummingbirds do not drink though their beaks like a straw A hummingbird will use its tongue to lap up nectar from flowers and feeders.
• A hummingbird’s tongue is grooved like the shape of a “W”.
• Hummingbirds have tiny hairs on the tip of the tongue to help lap up nectar.
• A hummingbird’s beak is generally shaped like any other bird beak, just longer in proportion to its body.
• The edges of the hummingbird’s top beak will overlap the edges of the hummingbird’s bottom beak.
• Hummingbirds will not get addicted to a hummingbird feeder filled with nectar. The hummingbirds will leave when they need to.
• A hummingbird can eat anywhere from half (1/2) to eight (8) times its body weight a day.
• A hummingbird can dive up to 60 miles per hour.
• Hummingbirds have an average life span of about 5 years.

Just in case you have not visited lately, I want to let you know that ERP is host to some very rare birds. At the humming bird feeders you can see one for yourself: the Doubleday’s Hummer.

This flying jewel, or joya voladora, as the Spanish explorers called a hummingbird, is indigenous to western Guerrero and Oaxaca with a possible range into western Chiapas. Once thought to be a subspecies of Broadbill, the Doubleday’s (Cynanthus l. doubledayi), male sports an forehead of iridescent turquoise blue, the throat is deeper violet-blue, the under parts are generally more blue than the Broadbill and the under tail coverts are black.

Why not drop by and meet this jewel of Guerrero?

Here are some tips to attract hummingbirds:

1. Plant native species and plants with flowers that attract hummers.

Some possibilities for the Mexican coast are; lantana, all ixoras, caesalpinias flor de mayo, mandavilla, shrimp plants, and more to come in a later post…

2. If your garden is new or doesn’t have many flowering plants, try placing a red plastic table cloth on the ground underneath your feeder. Anchor it with flowers pots or rocks. The hummers will see it from the air and come to check it out.

3. Make sure your humming bird feeders contain clean nectar. When it is hot or when you don’t have many hungry hummers visiting, you may need to change the nectar every day.

4. Use this recipe for hummingbird nectar:

1 part sugar

4 parts water

Mix together and bring to a boil – this helps prevent fermentation of the nectar

Cool before adding to your feeder

Store extra nectar in the refrigerator

5. Want a traveling feeder to see what the hummer traffic is in your vacation destination? Fill a small wine glass with sugar water and place it on top of a red cloth on an outside ledge at your hotel room.

I am off to check out the birds!

Doña Mariposa