A male ruby-throated hummingbird got lost in my mom's police department and couldn't leave. The bird gave up and hid atop a desk by daybreak. Our city's best, Officer Henry, hand-fed it sugar water through a coffee straw.
The hummingbird was exhausted and stopped flying, so my mother put it in a box and asked me to take it home. My 10-minute drive home felt like I hit every red light. I searched my backyard for an appetizer after returning home.
I held the weak hummingbird in my palm, removed a jasmine plant branch, and delicately inserted its bill into the fragrant blossom. It couldn't lift its body or head, but drinking strengthened it.
The bird was sitting up and virtually dancing on my palm by the 10th blossom. I placed my new companion at the base of the jasmine, pulled a few little branches down to its level
and watched from my patio chair a few feet away after 15 minutes of hand-feeding. After cautiously testing its wings a few inches above the soil, the bird flew up, down, and around the shrub!