----- Original Message -----
From: "Ruth Sullivan" <godwit513 at msn.com>
To: "Kevin Purcell" <kevinpurcell at pobox.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2009 10:36 PM
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] re: Anna's hummingbirds


> Hello Kevin,
> Thank you for the reply,This flycatching started after the bad weather we
> had with cool temperatures to keep the feeders not freezes ,I exchanged
> feeders.I had both male Anna's today ,keeping away from each other,the one
> in the front yard the other on the feeder in my backyard.He disappeared in
> the huge Fir Tree.The one m,ale in the front yard is the most dominant who
> chases and the one sit all day perching high in the highest part of the
> tree,he also don't use the feeder much.He seems hyper and always alert
> ready for an intruder.I did not saw the female today.My Son Patrick been
> keeping the diary since 1989.We used to keep it up of birds arrival,and
> how long winterbirds will stick around,later we added behavior on birds
> what seems unusual and interaction with other bird species.Last bird
> seeing by Patrick was 6 Purple finches on September 2007 at 7.30 AM.
> I did not write to the 20th of October,but when I spotted the male
> Pileated Woodpecker on the 17 th of November, and again on the 18 th, I
> start keeping book every day and it became a habit.This Pileated been
> coming on a regular basis every day to how.I have a pair and an extra male
> who comes and is going to the Fircrest Golf Course,the pair are going to
> the swamp.This two bred in 2008 bringing the two young for feeding here.I
> photographed all this and also the big pole where there going every visit
> from the Suet feeders.There got huge long markings now on 3 of the
> poles,there must have also some kind of bugs in this light poles.On
> December 21 th 2 Townsend's Warbler was coming back and are still here
> every day I see them coming regular to feed on the Suet.It is really
> rewarding when you can going back to read how many birds you used to
> have.Like for instance at one year we had 18 Varied Thrushes in my
> yard,this was in 1996,we always had many,but the last year it change
> dramatic only had a couple last year and again this year 3 Varied
> Thrushes,and one I found dead ,it was a male,it hurts a lot to loose such
> good bird.
>
>
> Cheers Ruth Sullivan
> Tacoma in Fircrest
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kevin Purcell" <kevinpurcell at pobox.com>
> To: "Ruth Sullivan" <godwit513 at msn.com>
> Cc: "Kevin Purcell" <kevinpurcell at pobox.com>
> Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2009 6:28 PM
> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] re: Anna's hummingbirds
>
>
>> Small insects! Gnats and the like. With our recent warmer temps (and
>> direct heating from the sun) they appear and the ANHU eat them. It's a
>> fun behavior to watch: not one most people expect of hummingbirds.
>>
>> I'm pretty sure that over winter they're just making way on human
>> provided sugar solution which gives them plenty of carbs/calories to
>> keep warm and active but nothing to repair their bodies. That requires
>> protein and they can get that from the insects.
>>
>> Their brood also needs protein and so needs to be fed insects to grow.
>>
>> One thing some animals do that is different to humans is not to generate
>> urea as a by product of protein destruction but to make creatinine
>> (another nitrogen containing compound). Urea is toxic and is excreted
>> (and so requires water to get rid of it). But animals that make
>> creatinine instead of urea can reuse that to make proteins (and can save
>> the water they would have used in excreting it ... this is an adaption
>> used by desert manmals). I'm not sure if birds do a similar thing though
>> they do excrete uric acid rather than urea when they excrete nitrogen.
>>
>> I'm not sure if a lot of work has been done on this but it seems like an
>> interesting area for some real ornithology or bird physiology. I'd have
>> to check the literature!
>>
>>
>> On Jan 24, 2009, at 6:08 PM, Ruth Sullivan wrote:
>>
>>> Hello Kevin,
>>> I watching my Hummingbird so close writing notes every day I been
>>> seeing them flycatching more than feeding on the Feeders.It looks to me
>>> that there catching something what.There going up and coming right who
>>> there was perching.
>>>
>>> Ruth Sullivan
>>> Tacoma
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Purcell"
>>> <kevinpurcell at pobox.com>
>>> To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>>> Cc: "Kevin Purcell" <kevinpurcell at pobox.com>
>>> Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2009 4:38 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] re: Anna's hummingbirds
>>>
>>>
>>>> I sent the comment below to Rod and it's perhaps worth posting here
>>>> because too many make the assumption of simple pairs for breeding
>>>> (perhaps because it seems so common amongst passerines and other
>>>> common birds like waterfowl and perhaps because it's considered the
>>>> human trait) but quite a few alternate breeding systems are used by
>>>> different bird species.
>>>>
>>>> The particular system in use is that which best fits the availability
>>>> of food and amount of predation that a species experiences.
>>>>
>>>> My favorite odd one is the Magpie Goose (in Australia) where males
>>>> pair (triple?) with two females who breed a single brood with eggs
>>>> from both females in a single nest. The primary reason seems to
>>>> optimize against loss of chicks by predation from Fish Eagles when
>>>> the brood moves to it's feeding grounds. It turns out that three
>>>> adults do a lot better job than two defending the brood.
>>>>
>>>> My comment was:
>>>>
>>>>> As Anna's Hummingbirds are polygynous (as are all hummers) I rather
>>>>> doubt that would happen.
>>>>>
>>>>> The male defends a feeding territory and permits females to build
>>>>> nests in parts of that territory. So he guarantees food supply for
>>>>> himself and the females he breeds with. His sole job is to defend
>>>>> that territory (hence the aggression most hummers show). But she's
>>>>> on her own with the eggs and brood.
>>>>>
>>>>> Without insects to provide protein breeding too early will not raise
>>>>> a brood. I suspect these are just doing the preliminaries (I hope).
>>>>>
>>>>> On Jan 24, 2009, at 9:21 AM, Rod Gilbert wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> The Birder's Handbook says that only the female incubates the eggs,
>>>>>> but I was wondering whether they might take turns when insect
>>>>>> populations are scarce?
>>>>
>>>> Note that in this case there is also female selection of the
>>>> territory i.e. a female will mate with a male if the defended
>>>> territory looks "good".
>>>>
>>>> Non-territorial humming birds tend to use leks for mate selection.
>>>>
>>>> On Jan 24, 2009, at 12:35 PM, Rod Gilbert wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> A couple of people have emailed me to say that males have no role in
>>>>> nest building or anything to do with raising the young so my
>>>>> assumptions were apparently purely speculation. One of them stated
>>>>> that a male would mate with any female that is willing. But also
>>>>> that there is no pairing up, which certainly doesn't seem to
>>>>> correspond with what I appear to be witnessing. My male is very
>>>>> tolerant of only one of the females that I have at my feeder.
>>>>> However, there could be alternative reasons for that.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Kevin Purcell
>>>> kevinpurcell at pobox.com
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Tweeters mailing list
>>>> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
>>>> http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters
>>>
>>
>> --
>> Kevin Purcell
>> kevinpurcell at pobox.com
>>
>>
>>
>