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When binoculars won’t do ... the wearable hummingbird feeder

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Hummingbird enthusiasts, how far are you willing to go for the ultimate hummingbird experience? Because a California inventor has created a hummingbird feeder that you wear on your face.

For $79.95 (shipping included) you buy one of these plastic helmets to pop on your head, sit quietly and motionless near a tree, and wait for the buzzing little birds to zoom up and drink sweet sugar water from a hole between your eyes. It sounds sort of awesome, and sort of terrifying.

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The wearable hummingbird feeder was created by Doyle Doss, a bearded inventor from Humboldt County (surprise!). He got the idea in the 1970s when a humming bird flew right in front of his face, inspecting his then gargantuan red beard for a place to stick its beak.

‘I was frozen and then I blinked and it flew away, but it was just so unique,’ he said. ‘I always wanted to be able to share that experience with other people.’

Here’s a video that shows what he came up with:

Doss put the video up on YouTube last fall, and around October it went viral and got more than 300,000 views. All that led to about 100 orders of hummingbird face feeders.

Doss says he hasn’t gotten much feedback yet. ‘Locally any time I can get someone to take a few moments and try it out ... well, everyone has been positive and amazed and ... well, just a little awestruck,’ he said. ‘It truly is a personal birding experience unlike any other.’

-- Deborah Netburn

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