A juvenile Anna's died at my feeder last night. It appeared quite sick and
had trouble swallowing. It shivered constantly, kept its eyes closed most
of the time, and repeatedly made a swallowing-retching-convulsive head and
throat movement with its beak slightly agape and tongue protruding. I
looked at the carcass with a magnifying glass, but didn't see any
deformities on the bill, eyes, or feet. Its tongue looks clear and normal.
It had a few grains of gold pollen on its face, so it had been feeding at
flowers quite recently. Would anyone/place be interested in the carcass?
It has been refrigerated.

Over the course of three hours, numerous hummers tried to visit the
feeder--or perhaps it was the same male and female repeatedly. I sat in a
doorway, about 3 ft away, and scared the healthy birds away. The male or
males would try to hit the juvenile's back and "thump" it off the perch.
Their desire to attack the sick bird was almost greater than their fear of
me, but my arm-waving prevailed. The female(s) would dash in and hover near
it, chattering, but didn't go in for a hit. Finally, a persistent female
zoomed to within about one foot of my face and hovered, which caused me to
retreat into the house, and then she perched next to the little one for a
while, making quiet chittering sounds. She stayed should-to-shoulder with
the shivering bird for a few minutes, then moved to an adjacent perch and
continued watching the sick hummer and me for a few more minutes, then fed
and flew off. I was surprised to see maternal behavior over a long-fledged
chick. She was willing to force me back into the house for access to that
sick little bird.

I cleaned the feeder, soaked it in a 10 percent bleach solution for an hour,
then soaked it overnight in fresh water to leach the bleach smell out. It
will be interesting to see if the hummers return this evening, or if they
will avoid the feeder with the giant featherless monster who snatches young
hummingbirds from their perches.

Allison
<areak at earthlink dot net>