przybyls@hpavla.AVO.HP.COM (Tom Przybylski) (07/26/90)
For the past few weeks, I have been observing a ruby throat
hummingbird hen at a feeder over my patio. She returns to the feeder
every 10 minutes or so near dusk. I've gotten some nice video tape
of her from my screened-in back porch since the feeder is only about
15 to 20 feet from the door (propped open to observe/photograph her).
I'm pretty sure that it is just one hen that returns over and over,
although a second hummer showed up one day resulting in about a two
second "fight" that ended with them both zooming away. I did not
get that on tape or get my binoculars on them fast enough to see if
the second bird was a cock or another hen.
Late last week, I didn't see her for a few days although I hadn't
had much time to watch. It used to be that she seemed to be there every
time I looked. So Sunday morning I went out on the back porch to sit
around for a while and see if she would show up. I left the screen door
closed as I had my pet cockateil hen, Annie, on my shoulder. I was kind
of curious to see if Annie would react to the hummingbird. Annie sits in
the window a lot and likes to watch robins, finches, sparrows, and other
small birds. She freaks out if she sees or hears a crow, hawk, turkey
vulture, eagle, or other large bird. She acts nervous when she spots
grackels, starlings, or mockingbirds.
We sat there for a few minutes with only a mother robin and her
fledgling in sight. There was a bird out of sight in a tree near us
giving a repetitious short, sharp call (sort of a pip...pip...pip...).
None of this bothered Annie. All of a sudden, the hummingbird zoomed
in from the left (not her usual direction), with a male cardinal about
two or three feet off her tail! The hummer was vastly more manuverable
and veered off around the garage. The cardinal swung around and perched
in an apple tree behind the Bradford Pear tree where the hummingbird
feeder is. It was immediately apparent that the bird call we had been
hearing was the cardinal. He sounded pissed.
A minute later, the hummer zoomed up to the feeder. The cardinal
immediately flew down to a branch next to where the feeder hangs and
kept up his calls. The hummer did not back off, but continued to drink.
She would pause and back up a foot or two and fan her tail, but then
return to the feeder. In her normal feeding, she doesn't move back &
forth nearly as much, nor did she ever spread her tail that way. At
this point, Annie was jerking around on my shoulder, clearly agitated.
After about 30 to 45 seconds (shorter than usual), the hummingbird left.
At that point, the cardinal flew over to another apple tree on my
left, and perched on a low branch as close as he could get to me, about
15 feet away. He kept up his calls and was pointing at Annie. She climbed
behind my head trying to hide and was jerking around and hissing. At that
point, I went inside to calm Annie down. I heard the cardinal again later
that day, but I haven't heard or seen him since. There have been a lot of
cardinals around my area this year (northern Delaware, SE Pennsylvania),
but I haven't had any regular visitors to my yard. I've got finches, robins,
grackels, and mockingbirds nesting in the trees right around my house and
my neighbors, but no cardinals that I am aware of.
That bird sure was awfully territorial, in a location that I don't
think is part of his regular territory. A friend on the other side of
town has been trying to attract hummingbirds with flowers and a feeder
for the past few summers with no luck. When I mentioned this experience to
him, he wondered if his lack of luck was due to all the cardinals that
hang around his back yard.
I suppose this might be commonplace behavior for cardinals and no
suprise to a *Real* birdwatcher, but it sure was interesting to me.
- Tom Przybylski
przybyls@hpavla.HP.COM
edm@vrdxhq.verdix.com (Ed Matthews) (07/30/90)
In article <9270003@hpavla.AVO.HP.COM> przybyls@hpavla.AVO.HP.COM (Tom Przybylski) writes: > >hummingbird hen at a feeder over my patio. She returns to the feeder > Can you imagine what Gary Larson (American cartoonist) could do with a flock of hummingbird hens? :) :) "Margaret, those pesky hummingbird hens are buzzing around the corn patch again!" Sorry folks, it's been really slow in bird land the past couple weeks. -- Ed Matthews edm@verdix.com Verdix Corporation Headquarters (703) 378-7600 Chantilly, Virginia