Hummingbirds are Mean

2018-08-08

I refill my two hummingbird feeders weekly in an effort to ensure copious amounts of fresh sugar for the little critters who flit and fly around it all day. Mostly in the early morning and late afternoon ... but pretty much anytime not inundated by the noonday sun.

I've noticed that they are pretty mean to each other. Speedy and fearless they engage in dive bombing operations upon each other with the females typically less confrontational and the males much more so — increasingly with age.

The other day I saw two males engaged in what appeared to be a territorial dispute regarding my yard and neither would relent. They would hover and rise and fall and advance upon each other with threatening displays showing none of the retreat as the females ... but even they can be quite combative when a situation arises.

The rapid fire chirp heralded the commencing hostilities and it would appear that they value my efforts to ensure a fresh supply of colorless sugar syrup because though I hadn't seen any for a while they've definitely moved in at this point. I suppose it's beyond their comprehension that the supply of food is endless during the season because I will just go buy another five pound bag of sugar when I run low ...

I'll be maintaining the feeder through the end of September. This is beyond most others in the area but I understand that we have species which remain during the winter (though I don't know that they remain around here) and there are stragglers from points northward passing through on their way to the warmer southerly climate.

I really like hummingbirds because they bring back fond memories of days I'll never see again.