A hummingbird on its favorite perch near the feeder is getting ready to assail an intruding hummer
WHATEVER worrying I was doing about my hummingbirds is over.
The fussy, noisy little birds are out in force now, drinking nectar right and left and fighting over who has rights to which feeder.
It always happens this way. I see an occasional hummingbird in early April and then an occasional one or two at the feeders for most of the spring. Then I wait and worry.
Where are all the hummingbirds? Many of you ask the same question.
But not to worry. Summer and July arrive and it's like the birds have come out of the woodwork.
My theory is the females are not drinking nectar but are eating mostly insects in spring. Insects, full of protein, help the females build and maintain strength for the nest building/egg laying effort.
In the hummingbird world, raising young is all up to the ladies, from nest building to incubating, to feeding.
The deadbeat dads are off defending a feeder, perhaps, and flashing their handsome ruby throats for the entire world to see.
Because of the protein, insects are once again the top food when the youngsters are born. Females feed only insects to their youngsters until the little ones are able to forage on their own. This takes 10 days or longer after the little birds have left the nest.
So with that kind of schedule, if all goes perfectly well, there's about a month and half when females would not be coming to our feeders at all in spring. That doesn't account for courtship, nest building and failed nests along the way.
I recently learned that youngsters are usually bigger than their mothers because the parents have lost so much weight taking care of their brood. It's obvious our carefully tended sugar water is not the food of choice to sustain these hard working females.
By the time youngsters reach our feeders, they are no longer dependent on their mothers for food and they have the necessary flight and beak skills to extract nectar on a regular basis.
And that time is now. At least in my yard, it is.
One thing, it seems, the little birds take no time learning how to defend their territory. It appears the youngsters are born with sibling rivalry in their genes.
Generally one takes up a regular and familiar perch near a feeder and dive-bombs any other hummer that tries to come close, chattering its "zit, zit, zit" harangue as it zooms off after the intruder. I've heard hummers can fly up to 25 mph, but it looks like 100 mph to me.
This summer one hummer perches on a long, long bloom of a pregnant onion, a houseplant that's out on my deck now. The little bird also seems to enjoy feeding on the pregnant onion blooms, something I had not seen a hummer do before.
The pregnant onion is right near a hanging basket of Million Bells and the bird feeds on those blooms as well. The hummingbird nectar feeder also is close by, so this little hummer has taken it upon itself to be the protector of a triumvirate of foods.
From its perch on the pregnant onion stem my little vigilante defends its perch while keeping a steadfast eye on the Million Bells on the left and the feeder on the right. It not only chases other hummers off, but poor dragonflies and butterflies that fly into close get a tongue lashing, too. I've even seen it take off to chase a cardinal off the safflower feeder not too far away. As if the hummer cared about safflower!
It is said that one answer to the rivalry is more feeders, well spread out in the yard. One year I had three. This year I have two, but I compare them to spoiled children - the more you give them, the more they want, except these spoiled children are fun to watch.
To learn more about the little birds' life and habits, visit
www.hummingbirds.net.
