What alerted me was a weird sound I had never heard and
> it was the Anna's swooping down after climbing high in the sky. It
> reminded me of the nighthawks at Malheur and the sound they make when
> doing their courtship swoop. Then about an hour after seeing that I
> found a dead male Anna's on the ground in the near vicinity that I am
> assuming was killed by the other male. The dead one wasn't near our
> window so I don't think it was a window kill. Do you think it is
> possible that one male killed it in a territory dispute? I had heard
> about male hummingbirds fighting to the death somewhere...

We had a young rufous male fight with the dominant male here last year. I
saw and heard them fighting. It was a different sound than I had ever
heard from them. Within 10 minutes, I looked near where they had been
fighting and our cat was standing over a hummingbird who was not moving
well. We took him inside, called Audubon, but were told they don't live
long if their wings are damaged. It died within an hour.

The young male took over his domain. We actually missed the original
fellow. They had different personalities. The older one did much more
aerial acrobatics and machine-gunning when anyone approched the feeder
than the youngster. I wonder if the male I saw yesterday is last year's
young male. If so, his gorget is quite a bit larger this year. I'm so glad
they're back.

Nancy


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