G'morning David, 

 DW> Time and time again, I have read that hummingbirds are unique in their
 DW> ability to hover - remaining stationary in the air while they feed, or
 DW> whatever. But I have seen many other kinds of birds hovering, many of
 DW> them much bigger than hummingbirds. Yesterday, I watched a seagull do
 DW> it. There was no appreciable wind, but by flapping its wings the bird
 DW> was able to hang in the air while it surveyed the ground for some bread
 DW> that had been thrown there.

 DW> Surely, other people must have seen this too.

Certainly have ... this house sits in bush full of spiders which 
invade our windows, and are then cleaned out by flocks of 
sparrows, wagtails and white-eyes.  The wagtails are the exception 
with chaotic flight-paths gathering insects on the wing (spiders 
en passant) - while both the sparrows and the whiteys hover nicely 
in window-corners to feast on the eight-legged delights nesting 
there...

And this requires moving both forward and backwards in controlled 
fashion whilst the wings are flapping - just like the hummingbird, 
but in a very different beat-speed league...

Our seagulls ridge-hover, too;  we are a highly-ridged area that 
has a variety of gull, para-gliders and kite-flyers riding the 
wind-plumes that these ridges create in most land or sea breezes.

:-) 
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