In the cheap entertainment department, hummingbirds rank at the top. A $10 feeder, a few tablespoons of sugar, and bingo, you’ve hit the jackpot.
Just put out the feeder, take a seat somewhere close, and drink in the antics that follow. The aerial high jinks hummingbirds have perfected will amuse you from sunrise to dark.
What you’ll see at the feeder is territorial, aggressive behavior. One hummingbird lands and begins sipping sugar water. Immediately, another arrives to dislodge it. This clash of mini-titans sometimes results in an immediate high-speed chase. Other times, two birds will hover face-to-face, tails flared so white feather tips glimmer in low morning sun.
When neither backs down, they zoom off in a bee-line that literally looks like two huge bees playing tag at speeds so fast you’re not sure you saw them.
If this weren’t enough, there’s a soundtrack involved. During all their jousting, hummers chatter and squeak. Their wings also make noise, and, despite their name, humming is not what you’ll hear as they screech past your nose in full flight.
It’s a thrumming, this beating of wings at 50 or so times per second − a vibrating, insect-like whine.
At some point, when you’ve watched all this action awhile, you’re bound to ask why it takes place.
Experts tell us hummingbirds interact so aggressively because, in nature, nectar in flowers is a limited resource they can’t afford to share. It doesn’t matter feeders offer an unlimited supply. Aggression is hard-wired so deeply in hummers, they can’t figure out there’s a difference.
And so they confront, bluff, display, zoom around and burn calories we can’t imagine.
A hummingbird’s caloric intake is equivalent to a human consuming 155,000 calories a day. This insatiable need for nutrition results in hummers eating as much as three times their body weight daily.
Many of us watch as they fuss at the feeder and try to reduce confrontations. The most common strategy involves placing…
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