It’s only late mid-April, there aren’t many hummingbirds about, and it makes absolutely no sense for two birds to fight over a 4-station feeder. But they’re hummingbirds: They make chickens look like Greek philosophers.
There’s probably a good reason for it. They’re both male – actually I’ve never seen hummers I was sure were female fight over anything. They just hang out and feed. But the males fight when there’s no apparent reason for it, which means the reason probably doesn’t have anything directly to do with the feeder. Like mating rights or something.
Maybe they’re trying to impress the badgers.
Yeah, they get into it, too. I mean, they collide at high velocity. I can only imagine they’re only saved by their more-or-less total lack of mass.
But I’m never quite sure how seriously they’re taking it, because there never seems to be a winner. They’ll go at it all evening long, with frequent breaks. It’s not as though they’re fighting to the death.
Once the main flocks get here, things really get entertaining. And I start going through a lot of sugar.
Oh, and I do seem to have been able to fix that big crack. So Seal-All to the rescue!
Real Aerial Combat, right there on your porch. That show is surely worth a few pounds of sugar.
My wife has a way with animals here in the woods. She has LOTS of hummers come to visit each year. They buzz our heads and windows in the spring to let us know they are back. One day (last year) she found a bird laying on a feeder…an apparent victim of the aerial combat. Was barely breathing. She brought it in the house and put it a padded matchbox for a couple of hours. Placed a couple of drops of sugar water on the beak. After about 1 1/2 hrs it began to move more and more in the box and just stared at my wife. Took it on the back porch and sat with it, feeding it some more, until it stood up looking up at her and then flew off. Made a couple of passes back by before joining the flock in the yard.
If the crack comes apart again make sure the tremp is warm enough before you use it or put a clamp on the feeder part for a day. I’ve had the glue shatter but very rarely.
Females will fight over the feeder, but it does seem to be mostly males. I’ve commented on the sounds of WWIII going on outside my window on more than one occasion. A few years ago there was a pair of males who were going at it hammer and tongs, to the point where I was able to walk up barely 4 feet from them with my good camera and snap a bunch of photos! They’re not currently up on my blog, I might have to fix that.