Observations of The Urban Spaceman 
Jewelled Crown
Adorned with a crown of jewels, she sat regal on her throne, watching the comings and goings of her subjects below. The morning sun rose, glinting off the stately amethyst and sapphire necklace which twinned the crown.
Nearby flower petals, opening to embrace the sun’s touch, beckoned to her with their perfume of sweet nectar. The cold of the long night forgotten, she stretched her wings and hummed a monotonous tune as she hovered in place.
With royal precision, she dipped forward to greet the flower and sip her saccharine breakfast.
A Bird’s-eye View
Every other Sunday I’ll be publishing a drabble about, or from the perspective of, a bird. This week’s bird is the beautiful Hummingbird. I suspect the specimen in the Pixabay picture above is actually a male (the species exhibits sexual dimorphism with the males usually more brightly coloured than females), but I couldn’t get the image of a queen wearing jewels out of my head.
An interesting fact I discovered whilst writing this drabble is that the males of some species perform a ‘courtship dive.’ To paraphrase Wikipedia, the male ascends by ~35 metres before diving down over a female at 27 m/s (equal to 385 body lengths/second) to produce a high-pitched sound. That downward acceleration is the highest reported for any vertebrate undergoing a voluntary aerial manoeuvre, and the speed relative to body length is the highest for any known vertebrate. In comparison, that’s about twice the diving speed of the formidable peregrine falcon whilst pursuing prey.
Hummingbird–1, Peregrine falcon–0
And he’s pretty damn upset about it!
Glorken
The Urban Spaceman
Observations of The Urban Spaceman 
I am a hummingbird fan as well. I look forward to reading your reflections.
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I’ve been told the hummingbird is the only bird capable of hovering like bees for a longer time. Quite a road of evolution from the dinosaurs.
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That bird is gorgeous, love that shade of blue on its feathers. I think you picked the perfect photo to go with your drabble, because that bird oozes royalty.
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Cheers, Jade! I imagine Her Royal Majesty Queen Hummingbird’s thoughts as that picture was snapped were, “Bow before me, lowly drab peons!” In a very posh English accent. 😉
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I can envision that perfectly LOL
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Such a pretty bird! Nice little drabble too.
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Thanks! The picture definitely makes me want a hummingbird to look at every day. Not sure what I’d actually do with one, beyond the base urge of “me want pretty!”
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I think 90% of people would say the Peregrine is the fastest diving bird–if not another raptor. I had no idea the hummingbird could exceed that.
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Same here! It’s fascinating what little tidbits you can unearth when writing. 🙂
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So you’re saying your stories are “for the birds,” eh? 😀
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Hah! 😛 I’m surprised it’s taken four stories for that one to pop up.
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