I have been reading the various posts about aggressive hummingbirds, but
two in my yard just took this to an extreme.

A little while ago, just before it started to get dark, Joseph yelled
for me to look out the window to see two Anna's Hummingbirds fighting
over the feeder. Both looked like females, but the dominant bird, which
looked bigger, or at least more fluffed up, and had more red on the
throat, could have been a late-molting immature male. The dominant bird
kept chasing the other bird away from the feeder, over and over again,
but it kept coming back. The two circled each other closely, vocalizing
like crazy, and then grappled with each other in the air, spinning
around and around until they hit the ground, where they continued to
wrestle. Then they would then separate and do it all again, over and
over and over. I filled another feeder and we went outside, and Joseph
held the second feeder up away from the first one, so both birds could
eat before it got dark, but then they both tried to feed at that one,
and fought over it, too. The birds ignored us completely, buzzing
around inches from our heads. This went on for almost half an hour! At
last, the smaller bird flew away. During the battle, the bigger bird
got some sort of gunk stuck to its bill as it rolled around on the
ground, and, after the other bird left, it spent another five minutes
wiping its bill on a twig and scratching its bill with a foot to get it
off.

I have seen Anna's Hummingbirds fight like this before, but never so
persistently. The colder weather must have something to do with it.

Rachel Lawson
Seattle
rachelwl at msn.com