Maggie’s Hummingbirds!

[ACK]

Wife saw several hummingbirds in the yard and wanted to get a feeder. We now have two feeders and one extremely territorial bird. Wife named it Leslie (?) This birds will chase off all other hummingbirds, I tried spacing the feeders, to no avail.
They are interesting to watch. One of the feeders has a platform where the hummingbird could perch itself instead of a maintaining a constant hover, somehow it is seldom used (?)

Very odd chirping sound, constantly threatening all other birds


Nikon D7500 , Nikkor Micro 105

 

[Slash0311]

My pic isn't as cool as yours. But I caught this little guy in the top of my garage. After leaving the door open for a while, he still wouldn't leave. I climbed a ladder, caught him, and he sat just like this as I climbed down the ladder and walked outside. I took the picture and then he flew away.

 

[johnl]

Wife saw several hummingbirds in the yard and wanted to get a feeder. We now have two feeders and one extremely territorial bird. Wife named it Leslie (?) This birds will chase off all other hummingbirds, I tried spacing the feeders, to no avail.
They are interesting to watch. One of the feeders has a platform where the hummingbird could perch itself instead of a maintaining a constant hover, somehow it is seldom used (?)

Very odd chirping sound, constantly threatening all other birds
View attachment 7434102View attachment 7434103View attachment 7434104View attachment 7434105

Nikon D7500 , 155 Nikkor Micro 105

Hummingbirds are cool for sure. Make sure you wash out their feeders weekly with hot water and soap and a good rinse. If you use a paper towel and see pink, that’s bacteria due to sunshine reacting with the sugar. Not good, will kill the poor birds. Nice photo.

 

[Kadams1563]

They are cool for sure. Awesome to watch and remind me of Osprey choppers or planes whatever those things are. They just float around and hardly ever land.

 

[S Roche]

We have a feeder hanging on the deck and the Boss will come down and get in your face. Once they get the sugar buzz all bets are off. Fun to watch though.

 

[supercorndogs]

The Rofous hummingbird is the in the O.Ps picture. They are notorious for being very aggressive and chasing all the other humming birds away. In my area the Rofous hummingbirds are usually only here for a couple weeks.

 

[hangunnr]

Our birds here are pretty aggressive towards each other. It’s rare to see 2 on the feeder. I caught this one hanging upside down sleeping while the other female sat guard.

The males left here about 3 weeks ago and there are only a few females left now. I’d guess with the cooler weather right around the corner that they’ll be gone in short order.

Gonna miss them when they go....

 

[pmclaine]

Challenging targets with the Red Ryder due to size and jinking, speedy flight. Good training!

Oh wait! I mean...

They are beautiful and majestic examples of the wonder and intricacy of nature!

 

[Kadams1563]

Talk about aggressive. I have a blue Jay that lives in a bush next to my house. Not even a large tree and that fucker runs off every bird I have around here. He’s mean as shit.

 

[MtnCreek]

Around here (SE) the smaller green with red throat are the aggressive ones.

@Slash0311 I've had the same issue with humming birds in the garage. They don't seem to understand that flying down will free them. They will stay above door level.

 

[hangunnr]

Hmmmmmm, considered a migratory bird.

 

[roostercogburn98]

We get a few around the house from time to time

 

[lightman]

We have been having about a dozen here at the house. My Wife has mutable feeders and has to fill them about twice a week. They are very territorial little creatures! I often sit in the garage door in the late afternoon and enjoy a beer or two. One of the males has fallen in love with the red plastic handle on the garage door emergency handle!

 

[Fig]

We only have one feeder, but I've seen five of them dogfighting over it in my back yard. They look cute, but they're as aggressive towards each other as any bird I've ever seen.

For the last month it's only been females, and they don't seem to fight as much. Like most birds the females are dull compared to the males. I've always wondered why some of them light on the feeder, and some of them hover while they feed. Not enough to actually study it...

 

[acudaowner]

love the pics but did you know

 

[Fig]

That's one of the best True Facts I've ever seen!

 

[PinesAndProjectiles]

We've got one that is fairly aggressive also. She tries, but one day she was trying chase off three of them and they told her to pound sand. Quite comical for sure.

Ours have all but disappeared now. Not sure where you're at, but if they do leave to migrate south, keep your feeder up for another month or so as you may catch some stragglers that are late to the migration party.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

love the pics but did you know

Yeah, that one was GOOD.

 

[Marinevet1]

Went to my brothers a couple of weeks ago to shoot guns. When I pulled up in his driveway, Insaw two humming bird feeders on his front porch, and about 8 birds fighting for a position..........there was one male that was being an ass and chasing the others away........he said he has seen 12 of them at a time there......

 

[vivdav]

We are in Rockport Texas and middle of the migration and we have 35 feeders out and will have 200+ hummingbirds in the mornings an evenings on our porch. My wife will fill the feeders twice a day and go through 50 lbs of sugar pretty regular. A site to behold

 

[LaraCroft]

Oh, I love hummingbirds!! Let me get some pics off my camera of the Rub Throated Hummers that live with me! Occasionally, we get an Anna's hummingbird, but that is rare. We had one last year, but I was unable to get a pic

 

[vivdav]

Perfect morning

 

[LaraCroft]

These are from last year. One mated pair furiously defended the feeder from any other visitors. I had some sticks out that I was going to use to create a spooky tree for Halloween decor (the birds had not yet left), and this female claimed it for herself. I did not have the heart to move the branch.

 

[buffalowinter]

 

[LaraCroft]

I have a lot of orange flowers in the backyard that the birds love, including orange Mexican Sunflowers. Here in Virginia, we have a flowering plant called Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis). I finally have some on my property, and love it! The hummingbirds actually stopped coming to the feeder as often once this bloomed. I regret that I have no pictures of them visiting these cute orange flowers.
In my garden, I have a bench. About a week ago, I sat there to rest and the hummingbird came over to visit the jewelweed. After many flowers, it came over to rest a few feet from me on a fence supporting another plant. Yes, I talked to it. Super cute and adorable. It kept looking at me. When a big truck went by, it startled. I gently said all is okay. It looked at me, then settled down for several more minutes before visiting more cute little orange flowers

 

[ACK]

Thank you all for your comments. I wash and refill the two feeders every three or four days.
Awesome video.
Allen or Rufous ?
Would be nice to see more than one bird feeding at a time.
This dude is very territorial, perches above the feeder, facing away from the feeder in order to chase all others. One day while he (it?) was busy chasing another bird three hummingbirds came in to feed, no issues with each other. Then "Leslie" (wife had to name it) ran them all away.

Bees are another critter feeding . On warm days the nectar is accessible to the bees.

 

[Ravenworks]

My wife made the noise they make and the bombed her.
She has all kinds of birds pass through here but the hummingbirds are my favorite.

 

[346ci]

View attachment 7434113

My pic isn't as cool as yours. But I caught this little guy in the top of my garage. After leaving the door open for a while, he still wouldn't leave. I climbed a ladder, caught him, and he sat just like this as I climbed down the ladder and walked outside. I took the picture and then he flew away.

This happens to me a lot. I have found that leaving the bay doors open during dusk and turning the lights off will allow them to see the natural light outside and fly out. I have caught them with the ladder method also.

 

[Unknown]

We keep feeders out year 'round for the hummingbirds. The Anna's stay year 'round, but the Roufous are rarely seen during winter months. We have been fortunate enough to see the males do their mating diving acts before the females quite a few times. The males fly in front of the female, then fly really high up in the air and dive straight down in front of the female, pulling up only at the last minute. When they pull up, their wing feathers make a little "chirp" sound.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

We have them up here in the summer... they torment the hell out of the cats.

They are so cool...

Sirhr

 

[GrumpyOleFart]

love the pics but did you know

Brilliant

 

[Jumper]

Here in central Michigan we wait for their arrival every spring and enjoy them all summer long. We saw the last one here about a month ago . It'll be next spring sometime before they return again. Also took our last ride for the season on our motorcycles today. The only thing flying around here for the next 6 months will be leaves and rain and snow. I wish I lived in Texas .

 

[ACK]

"Leslie" is still here. I only see it in the early morning and in the evening . All others are chased away.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

Here in central Michigan we wait for their arrival every spring and enjoy them all summer long. We saw the last one here about a month ago . It'll be next spring sometime before they return again. Also took our last ride for the season on our motorcycles today. The only thing flying around here for the next 6 months will be leaves and rain and snow. I wish I lived in Texas .

No matter how 'bad' you think you have it there, remember that 'we here' live considerably further North of you. Believe me when I say, WE wish we lived in Texas. Hell, we wish we lived in Michigan,,, for that would be warmer/better/gooder than what we have!

 

[Slash0311]

Im still seeing a few here in Southern Indiana.

 

[Fig]

This is super cool I found just googling around.

Blue-throated Mountain-gem - Range map - eBird Status and Trends

The range map depicts the boundary of the species' range, defined as the areas where the species is estimated to occur within at least one week within each season.

ebird.org

I went back to the first humming bird, and if you use the arrows in the upper right you can go through all the species and see their habitat maps. Most I've never even heard of before.

 

[vivdav]

We have a yearly hummingbird festival in Rockport, TX that has lectures, bandings and tours showing off the birds pretty interesting if you get the chance

 

[Davo308]

You can record your sightings here-its kinda cool when they first start to move into or out of an area.

In California, people frequently mistake the Anna's hummingbird for the Ruby-throated.

2020 Hummingbird Migration Map

www.hummingbirdcentral.com

 

[hankpac]

Luekistic Hummingbird. I think it is an Anna's but could be almost any of them. It is an all white bird with black eyes, beak and feet/legs. Very rare, not a true Albino. Passed through Kerrville TX, a couple of years ago. I don't know if it had a chance to breed, as all the others at the feeder (placed at the "Hollow Cross"), chased it off anytime it tried to approach. I got several shots of it, but this is, unfortunately the best of them. Snowy white.

 

[John_in_WYO]

The Rofous hummingbird is the in the O.Ps picture. They are notorious for being very aggressive and chasing all the other humming birds away. In my area the Rofous hummingbirds are usually only here for a couple weeks.

Are you sure Leslie isn’t a Raufoss hummingbird?

 

[ACK]

Leslie is still here. Just before dusk

View attachment 7444573

Same birds? plumage looks different.

 

[Simonsza1]

Pretty good rule of thumb is if there fighting like crazy you need more feeders. Also 346ci is right, any birds including hummers if you shut off all the lights and open the doors all the way they will fly out most of the time.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

Pretty good rule of thumb is if there fighting like crazy you need more feeders. Also 346ci is right, any birds including hummers if you shut off all the lights and open the doors all the way they will fly out most of the time.

"If You Build It, They Will Come"

 

[Slash0311]

Ive not seen mine here for 3-4 days now.

 

[ACK]

I repurposed one of my old phone as a digital video camera. Bird continues to defend his territory. Keeping all others away (at least two others)

Then it got chased off by a bee. I could see a bee killing a small bird. Bird takes off, chased by the bee, then proceeds to chase the bee. Bad dude. By the shape of the tail feathers it is a Rufous

"Get off my lawn"

AAARGH a bee!