Others may have more info, but my understanding is that the "bond" between
Anna's is no more than a few minutes: female perches in a visible place;
male J-dives enough to trigger hormones; they fly together and crash into
brush; its over.

Hummers, especially juveniles, have a powerful curiosity (probably helps in
locating food sources, but puts them in risky situations too), and they
(especially males) are intensely territoriual. Recognizing that it is very
hard to talk about animal behavior without anthropomorphizing, I suspect the
one that landed on the stunned bird was just trying to intimidate it into
leaving the vicinity of the feeder.

Also, hummers visiting feeders are subject to "sneak" attacks by other
hummers that may have territorialized the feeder. In the rush to escape an
attack, it is not unusual for a hummer to go in what may be "the wrong
direction" with potentially harmful consequences. I avoid putting feeders
too close to windows because of that.

chuck reinsch, magnolia, seattle, wa, (creinsch at humbirds.org)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Angela Percival" <angela at stillwatersci.com>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 12:33 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] odd Anna's Hummingbird behavior


My mom called from Portland yesterday to relay this event. She feeds the
hummingbirds year-round and the feeders are near some large kitchen
windows. A hummer hit one of the windows and landed on a wood shelf that
sits just below it. The bird lay there motionless on its side. Then,
another hummingbird came and landed on the motionless hummingbird and
perched there a bit before flying away. Then it did the same thing a
second time! After it flew off again, my mom went out to see if the
hummer was dead, but it sat up and zoomed off.

My mother had the feeling it was the bird's mate. I couldn't tell her
one way or the other because I have never heard of such a thing. I
suppose Anna's could retain a pair bond through the winter if they
remain in one place all year. Does anyone have any guesses as to this
behavior?

Angela Percival
Olympia, WA
angela at stillwatersci dotcom
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