I don’t think he likes me for some reason.
I agree, with the caveat that if you are also the animal who fills the feeder, they seem to figure that out, and are a bit more tolerant. I have a 1 quart feeder right outside my door, so its my daily ritual
I’ve rescued some stuck in skylights before, and they “seemed” to remember me, and were very tame for the rest of the season.
We’ve had some very close nests here in Santa Barbara and its been fun to watch the eggs hatch and then the birds maturing and leaving the nest. Watching fledglings try out their wings…like little high speed moths. They need insect protein to survive as much as nectar, so compost piles are also big favorites.
With a name like Colibri, he better be…
Says the guy who isn’t a botanist…
A local conservation agent told me the same thing. He also said that once they get used to you, they will start leaving you alone.
My own experience is they seem to be creatures of habit too. We added onto our front porch recently and I moved the feeder for better viewing. They eventually found the new location, but some of them would still go to the old location, hover and circle for a bit before flying ten feet down the porch to feed.
More specifically, to me they brought to mind solpugids, known in the Soutwestern US as “Sun Spiders” or “Wind Scorpions”; horrifying close-up headshot here: http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/arachnids/solifugids/images/solifugid_303_b.jpg
We once had the pleasure of noticing a hummer depositing a strand of silk or fur on a shrub branch outside my office window. I went out and took a peek and sure enough there were two or three strands laid there, visible only because I knew exactly where to look. Spent the next couple of months observing the entire cycle of nest buidling, egg laying (2), hatching, feeding, fledging, buzzing off.
It was a wonderful experience, but shortly after they’d hatched we snuck a look at the hatchlings (while Mom was away on business), and we were shocked by how ugly the chicks were. Our immediate reaction, in perfect unison, was “they look like sun spiders!”
A few days later their appearance was more standard baby birdish.
When I get that behaviour, I usually look around and notice the feeder is empty. They ain’t shy about letting me know when it’s time to clean and refill the feeder.
But if you’d just filled it, maybe he/she was saying “thanks!”
This cold snap was the first time ever that I went to check the feeders when I got home, and was holding the feeder, and a hummer came around. I went still and sure enough, it drank as I held the feeder. Very cool. (Or very cold, as the weather was.)
They go into a state called “torpor”, which is a lot like hibernation. Their metabolism drops drastically along with their body temperature and they can even be mistaken for dead.
Yeah, that was explained in the video. Interesting stuff.