Hey InterNutter, I'm so glad I found your new site. Remember me from way back when, on your X-Men Evolution focused Nutboard? I saw your post on the hummingbird station, with all kinds of aliens enjoying the "harmless" hummingbirds.
Hummingbirds can also be aggressive to the point of taking on eagles, will sometimes fight each other to the death, and were even the basis for the Aztec god of war. What happens when the aliens learn or discover (the hard way) some or all of these things?
Here is your original post: https://steemit.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02507-f317-the-jewels-of-the-tour
And two articles that focus on hummingbirds' dark side:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/hummingbirds-are-beautiful-but-their-personalities-are-for-the-birds/2015/09/21/0280e5b4-5afb-11e5-8e9e-dce8a2a2a679_story.html
https://slate.com/technology/2015/08/hummingbird-aggression-fierce-deadly-fights-for-territory-nectar-feeders-flowers.htmlAddendum by OP: I thought I'd clean up the above prompt a bit...
Bejewel station was known for it's beautiful, delicate, impossible hummingbirds. Many of the visiting havenworlders took them as living proof that those with a delicate constitution could survive living on a deathworld. Until some "clever" being had the brilliant idea of reducing the number of nectar feeders so that there were areas of more concentrated viewing. Until a few other "clever" beings had ideas to further concentrate the areas of hummingbird viewing. The special livesuits that included attached nectar feeders were particularly popular. Until the first of a series of incidents.
After the incidents began, the biologists discovered records of hummingbirds harassing eagles 1000 times their size. All havenworlder biologists agreed that the records of hummingbird territoriality around limited nectar sources was extremely understated.
...and the poor fools that were trying to escape the angry hummingbirds discovered they could dive at 45 miles per hour, turn on a second, and that they were willing to use their beaks as spears. -- Neemers
They are small. They are delicate. They are brightly coloured. They are creatures that eat nectar. All these things would make you think that they are harmless, but... they are still Deathworlders. The people of Bejewel station chose them as pollinators because they wouldn't get stuck in the air filters. Visitors must also remember that Terran bees, which are also venomous Deathworlders, are what hummingbirds more or less imitate.
The recent administration change refused to do their homework. They knew that the tourist dollar was the biggest earner for Bejewel Station, so the implemented a policy of installing hummingbird feeders only where the tourists could see them. After all, it took money and effort to maintain the parks when tourists were wandering around wherever they whist. This was cheaper, more efficient, and kept visitors to the paths.
The new administration also refused to listen to anyone familiar with the profitable avians in favour of catering exclusively to the tourists. They would learn their mistakes in full in less than a Standard week. It took that long for the birds to adapt fully to the new locations and, realising that resources were close together and limited, to begin territorial behaviour. Which included dive-bombing said tourists at speeds slightly in excess of twenty sidu per second. Still avaricious and hoping to minimise costs, the new administration began the complicated process of fixing the wrong thing[1].
Ignoring advice from the people who knew the hummingbirds, experiments with several kinds of netting or mesh commenced. Often produced at great expense. This, of course, obscured the views of the birds and some tourists ignored the warnings not to attempt damaging the protective screens. The same was true for re-enforced perspex walkway covers, which also produced an air flow issue.
The next attempt was rentable livesuits so tourists could observe the birds without harm to themselves. This, unfortunately, harmed the birds. A small, fragile bird impacting a ceramisteel-plated combat-rated livesuit will inevitably come off worse for wear, to say the least.
Then came the news that some of the famous hummingbirds were exhausting themselves to death with their aerial combat. Less eggs were getting laid. Less hummingbirds were hatching to provide something for the tourists to see.
Importing different species of hummingbirds only made it all worse.
Eventually, of course, it came full circle, with the nectar available in carefully-positioned areas and 'goat paths' where the wandering tourists tramped through the gardens looking to see the famous gemlike birds. The parkways of Bejewel Station also thoughtfully provided an information pamphlet concerning the life cycle, habits, and interesting information about the resident hummingbirds.
Including their ability to go Deathworlder Berserk if they were forced to share limited resources with too many others of their kind. Which was why the bird feeders had to be spaced at specific distances, and why there had to be so very many bird feeders, too.
The pamphlet was not an initiative by the administration. It was made, produced, and published by the long-term residents in the hopes of never getting another ignorant administration ever again.
[1] For the memetic version of how this works: https://the-barefoot-hatter.tumblr.com/post/610868917994487808/the-moonlight-witch
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / fionnbharr2000]
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