On our way to see Roma

We found what looked to be a dead hummingbird on our stone steps this afternoon as we left for a matinee. It was windy and cold. He was laying on his back, his feet clenched tightly, barely even breathing at all. I’d read somewhere that if you feed them sugar water you can revive them. So I ran back to get our sugar water from our feeder, and a paper towel. My boyfriend dipped the paper towel in the sugar water and dropped it over the little guys beak. He seemed to attempt to get some by sticking his tongue out, so we did that some more. Then I knew when they were dying or hurt you needed to get them warm, so I ran back and got my boyfriend’s yoga towel which is soft. We carefully put him in that in my hand, and folded it over him to keep him warm with just his head sticking out. We went inside and continued feeding him the sugar water from a leaf under his beak. It was just pooled on the leaf so he could drink easily. Eventually he started drinking more and more. His eyes were shut the entire time and his head in a weird position as he still wasn’t moving. Eventually after about 10 or 12min of that while still in the towel in my hand and us feeding him, he started to sputter and move a bit, making some small whimper chirps. He straightened his head. He drank more. We were so in awe and excited and happy. He started wobbling around like crazy, like a drunk toddler. It was like he didn’t know how to stand at all even though he was a grown hummingbird. He was sticking one wing out weirdly and falling on his back, beak in air, tongue jutting in and out and moving around like crazy. We thought he needed more sugar water so directed him to the leaf with it on there. Then he tipped back, opened his eyes with his mouth open, and fell forward with some drops of sugar water oozing back out of his mouth, and died. We were stunned. We called a hummingbird rescue place and they said he was an adult male, and had probably either been injured while swooping speedily as part of the mating ritual to show off, or had been hit by another male hummingbird as is typical given fierce competition. She said he probably needed more time to recover without drinking too much, and likely aspirated from sugar water going down wrong pipe. I have to say it was pretty traumatic and sad and I am still wondering if somehow we hadn’t given him as much sugar water whether he would have lived? Very sad. We buried him and named him Roma. We were on our way to see Roma when we found him. R.I.P. Roma, you ruby throated beauty now in hummingbird heaven.