So I’m sitting on my back porch yesterday evening, when I notice 4 or 5 humingbirds flocking to the feeder near me. All was normal until they began dive-bombing, body-slamming, and in general fighting eachother to get to the feeder, some attacks coming within centimeters of my head. I probably should have gone inside and let them do whatever so I wouldn’t risk getting broadsided by a semmingly pissed-off hummingbird, but I’ll admit it was pretty ironic (amusing) watching what are viewed by the general public as sweet, innocent little birdies becoming somewhat violent.
Is this normal behavior for hummingbirds, or is my area home to some genetic hummingbirdian gladiators?
Oh, absolutely. Hummingbirds (at least many species) are hyperaggressive mofos. I have seen many battles like that one, and occasionally seen one strike another hard enough to force it to the ground, or two grappling in midair until they tumbled down into the undergrowth.
I did my thesis on hummingbird territoriality in Panama, working with 6 species. The premise was to look for evidence of “optimal foraging,” that is, hummers were expected to defend only enough flowers to statisfy their energy needs - more would be superfluous, so they shouldn’t put energy into it. But it didn’t work out that way - a hummer would usually try to defend all the flowers it possibly could, even if they produced far more than it could use. I believe they worked on the idea that if they let anybody else share, they were opening the door to invasion - a “give 'em an inch, and they’ll take a mile” philosophy.
From the point of view of a hummingbird, a feeder is an infinite source of food, so they shouldn’t put any energy into defending it but just share. But they never learn this, and the more aggressive species will do everything they can to chase everybody else away. Hummingbirds just don’t have an “off” switch for aggression. I know a feeder at a cabin in Panama’s western highlands where a hummingbird battle royal has been going on continuously from sunup to sundown continuously for the last 10 years.
For an interesting hummingbird afternoon, go to the Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge in central New Mexico. Outside the visitor center are several hummingbird feeders usually attended by a couple dozen hummingbirds of various species. They’ll shy away as you walk by, but if you sit quietly nearby for a minute or so, they’ll forget about you and resume their running battle over the feeders.
It’s a fine show, particularly when the bright sun catches the males just so. The star during my visits has been a Rufous hummingbird, by some margin both the smallest and toughest of the gang.
My coworker who has several hummingbird feeders says that since the hurricane her neighborhood has seen a big increase in the hummingbird population and that the birds are fighting. Apparently the hummingbirds either fled the Gulf Coast or were blown this way by the winds.
It is significant that the god of war of the bloodthirsty Aztecs was Huitzilopochtli, the “Southern Hummingbird” or “Hummingbird on the Left.” The Aztecs knew the hummingbird as the fiercest and most warlike creature in all of creation. Huitzilopochtli’s festival was an orgy of blood featuring the hearts of sacrificial victims dumped on his altar on the main temple of Tenochtitlan.
Colibri is Taino in origin, adapted by Spanish and most other European languages. But my favorite name for the hummer is zumbador, “zoomer.”
Linnaeus apparently did something like this when he named the Ruby-throated Hummingbird Trochilus colubris; obviously he meant colibri, but this has mystified generations of ornithologists trying to figure out what the Ruby-throat had to do with snakes.
I wanted to clarify/expand on this a bit. The southern hummingbird migration season coincides with hurricane season. Normal migration may account for the recent increase in sightings. However, Google turned up several hummingbird aficiandos who believe that Katrina has brought more hummingbirds to their neighborhood.
Since it’d fit in this thread, I’ve got a question about (my) hummingbird feeder.
I saw the occasional hummingbird, but not that many. However, my feeder’s nectar level was dropping very quickly, so I was satisfied.
I found, however, that it was simply dripping its load all over the bushes under it. I imagine it was just getting so hot that the nectar was expanding a bit and dripping out the “flowers” on the feeder.
Is that the case?
Either way, I moved it to the back yard and hung it from a bracket on the fence. Now I’ve got ants and lovebugs on the thing constantly, and I suspect it’s still dripping but since it’s over a garden I can’t tell.
Admittedly, it’s a feeder I got at Wal-Mart, so it’s cheap. But am I doing something wrong…?
