There was an over-wintering Rufous Hummer near Port Townsend that was
killed by an Anna's a few weeks ago. When the Rufuos was present, a dozen
hummers would share the feeder. After it was gone, the feeder was ruled by
a single Anna's.



On Fri, Dec 23, 2022 at 9:55 AM creinsch <creinsch at comcast.net> wrote:


> Dayna,

>

> Over the years we have seen hummingbirds do a lot that appeared to us as

> strange. But, this morning, I saw an adult male Anna's attacking a

> younger (hatch year probably) bird on a feeder. The feeder has been

> defended by the adult for months, but I had never seen it do this. From

> my view in the kitchen at about 8am this morning, I could see the

> adult's head on the opposite side of the feeder, but could not make out

> what it was doing. Walking around to another window though, I could see

> it was on top of a younger bird beating its head with its beak. The

> immature bird was not moving or defending itself. I opened the back

> door about, 4 feet from the feeder, but the adult ignored me. The

> feeder is not in a position that I could reach, so I went and got a yard

> stick, and used that to gently lift up the tail of the adult, which

> startled it, and broke its grip on the smaller bird. But the smaller

> did not move. I did the same thing with the yardstick to it, and it

> finally took flight, with the adult in pursuit. Shortly, the adult

> returned. Hopefully the younger one found one of our other, less

> defended, feeders.

>

> We've seen mating, it is noisy, but very brief, generally with the two

> birds spiraling toward the earth or into a bush.

>

> It has been years since I thought about Ardrey's "amity-enmity

> complex". Where, at one point, he proposes that environmental hazards

> might promote cooperation (amity) among a given species, here it seems

> we may be seeing it doing just the opposite. Well, unlike penguins,

> hummingbirds live relatively short solitary lives, and they are fiercely

> territorial.

>

> Chuck Reinsch

> Magnolia

>

> _______________________________________________

> Tweeters mailing list

> Tweeters at u.washington.edu

> http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters

>



--
​Steve Hampton​
Port Townsend, WA (qatáy)