Hummer

Ruby-throated hummingbirds in the northeastern U.S. feed on the nectar produced by a fairly small suite of wildflowers: cardinal-flower, spotted jewelweed, wild bergamot, trumpet creeper, wild columbine, several milkweeds and a few others. Most of these plants grow in small colonies or as scattered individual plants.

Because their primary food sources are usually either limited or scattered or both, these hummingbirds aggressively defend “their” flowers from other hummingbirds. Those of us who have hummingbird feeders filled with a sugar/water mixture have created new “flowers” that bloom continuously and have an unending supply of “nectar”. But the hummingbirds don’t know that these “flowers” won’t stop blooming in a few days as wildflowers typically do, so they often defend them just as vigorously.

An adult male ruby-throated hummingbird has taken possession of the feeder hanging outside our kitchen window. The bird’s found that a dead branch mere feet from the feeder is an ideal spot from which to watch for interlopers. The branch is the place from which he launches attacks on any hummingbird that approaches the feeder.

It was a cloudy, drizzly, occasionally rainy day when the male hummingbird perched on the dead branch for quite a while. That gave me the opportunity to photograph him as he repeatedly turned his head, displaying the gorget on his throat as its feathers reflected various colors depending on the angle of the light –

The concept of sharing is obviously not part of this hummer's world. 

Soon all the hummingbirds, whether they use our feeders or not, will head south for the winter. Some making a non-stop flight across the Gulf of Mexico, until then the feeders will help them to store energy for the flight ahead.