Beware of Hummingbird !
Sometimes I feel bad when I don’t fill the hummingbird feeder. It HAS been mango season, so I don’t totally guilt trip myself. The flamboyants and orchid trees are in full bloom, too, so there’s other stuff out there for the birds.
The bananquits still often yell at me for my slacking off. But last week I had some time and I cleaned the two feeders and filled them with fresh sugar water.
The one in the front yard, which usually gets less traffic, was empty within two days. That’s usually the case, but the one in the back yard, which is usually finished hours after I hang it back up, was still full. After two days.
I worried that maybe there was bleach residue and that the birds were out there somewhere dying from chlorine poisoning, so I emptied the still- full feeder and refilled it with fresh sugar water, making sure, of course that there was not even a hint of chlorine aroma, and hung it back up.
Well, a hummingbird came right away to drink up. But that was pretty much it. The next day, the feeder was still full. I couldn’t figure out the problem. But this morning we got up early to process mangoes and Michael noticed that the hummingbird was chasing away any bananquit who would come near the feeder.
I watched for a while and it was true! This hummy has been guarding the back yard feeder! Michael tried to take video footage of the little thing chasing off the slightly larger birds, but it didn’t come out well enough.
You’ll just have to take my word for it. Michael will vouch for me. We have a bully hummingbird who doesn’t let any other birds near “his” feeder!
Ah! Livin’ on St. Croix!
July 13th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Hummingbirds are very territorial, we have a feeder on our porch and can watch it through our picture window. Those hummers fight like the RAF in a dogfight. Our resident rufous hummingbird male will sit on our weathervane at the end of the deck and watch for other hummers trying to feed. He will dive bomb at the intruder and chase it away from the house. Later in the summer, when they are stocking up on fuel for their retreat to warmer climates, they stop fussing and sometimes we will get five or six birds hovering around the feeder taking turns. They are truly a summer delight!
July 14th, 2009 at 6:41 am
I watch the aerial dogfights nightly around our feeders. Among them I feel like slow motion Tommy Lardbucket. They move at such a high speed.
July 14th, 2009 at 7:36 am
ditto for ours
I have a wasp guard wired on, as the sugar birds would pull them off when their beaks got stuck
the instructions said to use white vinegar for cleaning
Back during the drought I was having honey bees getting stuck and drowning in the bassins that I have as bird baths so there are now rocks for climbing out
The dog water had a baby sugarbird that couldn’t get out – Buster alerted us with a non-stop bark that he had never used before – glad we were home to rescue it
July 14th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Cheese an’ Bread, that little hummingbird is a terrorist, I tell ya’. We got Osama-Bird-Laden hidin’ out in our backyard.
July 14th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
wearing a turban?
February 11th, 2010 at 9:49 pm
There’s a little hummingbird that seems to live in my backyard and flies around all the time. It’s so pretty!
April 15th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
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