The white haired man adjusted the clear-glass container hanging from his porch, making sure it hung just right. The bottle, with bright red plastic flowers along the bottom, held a sweet liquid that suits the palates of some of his smallest neighbors.
In the blink of an eye, it was there, hovering right next to Ralph Barber, a ruby-throated hummingbird.
“They are entertaining,” the Eden resident said.
“And with 204 feeders out there, they still fight. They guard their turf.”
The feisty little creatures keep Barber busy.
The 85-year-old man and tiny bird stared at one another for a moment and in one quick flick of a motion, the hummingbird was gone.
“I enjoy my birds,” Barber said.
And Barber’s love for birds, all kinds of birds, shows in his actions and words.
“Look out on the feeder,” he said, leaning forward in his seat while adjusting his wire-rimmed glasses. “It’s that rose breasted gross beak.”
The rush of excitement is seen in Barber’s face. Only yesterday, he saw five of these birds, all together, a first for him.
“It’s one of the most beautiful birds, I think,” he said.
Barber is at home when he is surrounded by his feathered friends. He cares for them like people care for their cats or dogs.
Barber is no doubt, “the bird man of Eden.”
It all started 24 years ago, the day Barber and his late wife, Virginia, moved into their Eden home, June 13, 1984.
He spotted a red shouldered hawk soaring across the sky, and he was hooked.
Barber started putting up bird feeders, including hummingbird feeders and birdhouses. Now, many birds have set up their permanent residence or migrate regularly to Barber’s home.
In fact, the World War II veteran has kept records of when the ruby-throated hummingbird appears each year. His records go back 16 years.
He said March 21 is the earliest he’s seen a hummingbird at his home, but April 1 is the predominant day the small, fascinating bird decides to arrive at his Eden home.
“Hummingbirds you see today are not the hummingbirds you’ll see tomorrow,” he said.
Barber’s home is like a bird sanctuary, with a variety of birds, big and small.
His most exciting bird experience was when he saw a barred owl land on the tall post that helps keeps his bird feeders high above ground.
“It looked at me like I was invading its territory,” he said. “It just sat there. I went and got my camera and made a picture of it.”
Barber puts out sunflower seeds, sunflower hearts, thistle, worms and grubs for his birds.
He also put up 204 hummingbird feeders last year.
“I’ll have more than that this year,” Barber said.
He bought 240 pounds of sugar last year to make the sweet liquid mixture for the visiting hummingbirds.
Barber doesn’t know how much bird seed he’s bought to feed his feathered friends in the past 24 years.
“I never kept a record of it,” he said.
“I think it would scare me if it did, but it’s sort of like gas - keep it coming and just don’t run out.”
Some of the bird species seen in Barber’s yard include blue birds, cardinals, chickadees, bobwhites, red-belly woodpeckers, phoebes, towhee, finches, whip-poor-wills, blue-gray gnatcatchers and the list goes on.
In the beginning, Barber would break out his books of birds to identify different species.
Although he doesn’t claim to be a bird expert, Barber pretty much knows all the species of birds that appear at his residence.
“Really, it can be educational,” said Barber, who has been retired for the past 33 years. “It’s time consuming, and it’s an excellent way to pass time. I never put so much devotion to birds, until I retired.”
Barber said he also enjoys the yearly visits from the ruby-throated hummingbirds, which will move further south by the end of September.
“I hate to see them leave,” he said. “I really do enjoy my birds.”
