And Then There Were Three – Hummingbird Wars

Still More Hummingbird Wars

This morning, as I was sitting in my favorite chair, drinking my coffee, two hummingbirds were fighting. They were going back and forth, back and forth, each guarding the birdfeeder from the other. Neither one of them actually lit on the feeder. They were chasing each other across the yard through, by the shrubs, up and down, and doing contact battles in the air. This went on a good 10 or 15 min, in yet another installment of Hummingbird Wars.

They finally tried lighting on the bird feeder, but this was short-lived. At the at first I thought that these were Rufous hummingbirds but when I finally got a chance to see them I realized that these short little birds were actually juvenile Anna’s.

And then there were three – a third hummingbird joined them. This time, it was an adult male Anna’s hummingbird, with his bright red head. He joined the fray and chased around and around with the other two juveniles. When it was all over, he alone managed to feed at the hummingbird feeder . But he two juveniles continued their wars in the air.

I don’t know if we saw this kind of activity because food sources are getting low, with dwindling number of flowers in my yard or whether this is one more episode of the usual Hummingbird Wars, of which I got to see an extended version. I can say that was a lot of fun watching the three of them go out it in my home garden this morning. I briefly saw a Roufous hummingbird, but he never seemed to join in this bout. Maybe he picked a calmer spot to find some nectar.