Hummingbirds are cute solo, and even in a friendly group, but the little things can turn vicious if a new one tries to get into the flock. I’ve watched them have dogfights over the 2 feeders my mom puts up in the summer.
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maybe she uses less processed sugar…brown sugar or turbinado
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At the cottage I have a mug with a picture of a red barn on it, and I often look up to see a hummingbird suspended a foot away from me when I’m holding it.
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She may have used raw sugar.
(Edit) D’oh. Beat me to it.
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Yes they are. Consider that.
A group of goldfinches is called a charm, we don’t have hummingbirds across this side of the pond, sadly.
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I didn’t know that. Thanks. Also found this from the British Bird lovers site.
Some wonderful names for these collections. I especially like “a raft of ducks” and an “exaltation of larks”.
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They are greedy pugnacious little farts, but beautiful.
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It seems wobbly, tho that could be because hummingbirds don’t walk. Maybe it was coming out of torpor, or had been injured?
Also, many hummingbirds are testy and competitive around feeders, I think Ive only ever seen two ruby throated hummingbirds share a feeder once in the years Ive fed them. So that this bird was not seeming to mark the other hummingbird seems not good, either?
From the liatris looking spent in the b/g, this was late in the year, and maybe this young one got caught in a cold snap?
Interesting pic here of how odd they can look during torpor, btw:
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This is how you can get them used to hands, but it seems like a lot of work:
For ultimate cuteness, I want to make one of these:
Our ruby throats are way too territorial to share a feeder, but perhaps a bath?
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If you could starve to death in a matter of hours, you probably be less inclined to share food too.
That’s a nice bath. I have some retired aquarium tubing, maybe I’ll replicate it.
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If the hummers there are like those here, the “friend” that was hanging around was more interested in driving the present occupant away from the feeder. I have a feeder in view outside my office window and often see two or three of them fighting over the rights to the nectar. I see some amazing aerobatic displays as they attack each other and invariably just one is left to feed and the loser(s) head off to the tree line.
Yeah, the males are highly territorial, especially with food sources. They’ll sometimes tolerate a female, and the females tend to be cool with each other. So if there’s a male just ignoring another one, that’s not normal.
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A flower that never runs dry probably messes with their heads.
It’s been shown that they can track many flowers and know exactly when it’s time to return. Another hummer in their territory will mess them up, forcing them to waste effort checking non-full flowers.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2006/03/hummingbird-never-forgets
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That’s how my nephew got his photo taken while holding one, the thing (the bird, not my nephew) ran into a window or some such and was briefly stunned.
Yeah, they’re not timid creatures (I think the field guide even used the term “pugnacious”) (Also, what @philbin1 said). I’ve had one try to scare me out of my their garden, swinging back and forth in wide arcs.
I think that could be a good reminder in all sorts of contexts.
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Yeah, when they go into that swinging arc thing, they are really pissed off.
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And in some species, a male doing looping or side-to-side flight pattern means he’s trying to impress a female, and he’s trying to go fast enough to make a noise (like a chirp) with his feathers:
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