FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] hummingbird wars

["lyneart" <lyneart@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

After long resisting putting up a hummingbird feeder, thinking I saw plenty of 
hummingbirds without one, we finally bought a pretty blue glass feeder at Lost 
River Cave gift shop. Even though it got some visits, it was poorly designed 
and let all the sugar water drip out in about a day's time. This past Sunday we 
bought one of those cheap red & yellow plastic ones that work like a baby chick 
waterer and  hung it on a shepherd's hook beside the kitchen window. By the 
time I got in the house and closed the door a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird 
with white in the center of his forehead decided that it was a prime piece of 
real estate and began defending it against all comers. Yesterday I decided that 
I must have been mistaken about the white forehead spot because the male 
sitting in the nearby shrub guarding the feeder had no white in the middle of 
his forehead. Today when I got home for lunch I was greeted by 2 battling 
hummingbirds. They would face each other a few inches apart, then drag race 
straight up in the air to about twice the height of the house, then come back 
down and repeat the process. After 3 races one of them perched in the shrub 
near the feeder and the other retired to the butterfly bush right beside me. I 
noticed that the one near me had white in the middle of his forehead. I guess 
he couldn't keep up the payments on his newfound real estate.
Frank Lyne frank@xxxxxxxxxxx near Dot in Logan County
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