SonnyE wrote:
I love these little friends and their antics at times.
Juveniles will swoop in at about 24" and stare in your eyes.
Males will joust over a feeder, or camp out and try to drive off any wanting to partake of "His" flowers.
And on rare occasions even courting can be observed.
I feed a bunch out here. I started about 3 years ago, and quickly had to up my game to keep up. I started with one pancake feeder and some tiny one hole feeders. Soon I was filling the 6 smaller ones (2.5 ounces) 3 times a day!
Now we have 4 - 28 ounce, feeders up, and tonight I filled 3 of them. I only touch the bigger ones when they are empty. About every other day right now. The 2 pancake feeders as needed.
Sometimes one will try and "commandeer" a whole feeder, and drive off others. One day while watching the antics, one bird would swoop by drawing off the dominating male.
While leading him on a merry chase, the other two fed until he returned. Then off he'd go after a different one, and the decoy would feed.
At times a male will dominate a feeder, but let the females feed.
Sometimes there are 10-20 sitting on the wires crossing our backyard and they will swoop down and feed or battle. But it appears to be a social feeding time, usually mornings and evenings.
If you can get the sunlight right, often toward evening here, you can see a gnat cloud and watch them dart about snapping up the gnats. While nectar is their gas, gnats are their proteins.
Even before I ever hung up a feeder I use to like sitting out watching them dart through a gnat cloud like fish attacking a bait fish ball. Good riddance!
One morning while watching them and enjoying my coffee, I saw one picking something off the timbers of the patio cover. Curious, I slowly advanced and it was eating tiny newly hatched spiders from a web. That just thrilled the wife when I told her. She hates spiders.
I've fed other wild birds here and at our old house, but the humminbirds are here to stay. Tiniest droppings of any, and they hose away easily. The other wild birds, while welcome, are not fed or encouraged to stick around. Too messy.
We have a dove nesting in a hanging basket on the patio currently. She doesn't seem to mind the hummers, or me taking care of the feeders around her.
Today her mate returned and took care of the nest so she could feed. I wasn't here, but the wife got to watch out the window. Hopefully I can photograph that very soon.
The hardest to photograph are the Allen's Hummingbirds. They seem to be a bit wilder. Dressed in tan tuxedos with a dark band, or dark heads, the males and females alike are beautiful to watch. But a bit camera shy.
The Anna's are easy and very prolific. Some have even wintered over with us and will fatten up to where they fly like bomber, instead of a spitfire.
Concerned when people told me I had to take down my feeders to force them to migrate, I found invaluable information on the San Diego Zoo website. It is perfectly fine for them to winter over if they choose to. We had 6-8 that did.
Spring migration has become chaotic. Sometimes there are birds stacked waiting to feed. Hovering waiting for a feeder flower to open. Usually it only lasts for some days, to a week.
But often they will nest in the ivy on the fence, judging by the babies and juveniles coming to the feeders during the spring and summer. The babies are 1/2 the size of the adults.
So post some of your favorites, you're invited. :D
I love these little friends and their antics at ti... (
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Here are the ones I posted about a week ago. They are just a lot of fun to watch.