Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Wild Bird Wednesday - Hummingbird Wars (Again)

With the unusually warm weather we've been having this month (El Nino?  What El Nino?), the hummingbirds have been exceedingly active.  I've been watching the feeder to see if we get any interesting migrants passing through...no luck yet, but our resident Allen's and Anna's are keeping things interesting.
 
 
 
 
This is our resident Allen's female - she hangs out in a small tree in the backyard and keeps a close watch on "her" feeder.
 

 
 
She can see me through this window so I have to move fast to get these shots...leading to some slight blurriness.
 

 
 
Every once in a while, she lets down her guard and the Anna's swing into action.  This is a female Anna's.
 


 
She's always got one eye out watching for the Allen's to come back...I've noticed that the Allen's seem to be more aggressive about guarding the feeder.
 

 
 
This is a different Anna's...notice the new feathers coming in as she's finishing up a molt.
 
Hopefully, I'll get lucky and catch a Rufous or Black-chinned migrating through, but if not, there's still plenty to watch with our residents.
 
KJ
 

 



5 comments:

Rohrerbot said...

The same has been going on here as well. We have early migration of hummingbirds already!!! It's like spring is here:( Too soon!!! I do hope it cools down a tad for a little while. Had my first Rufous hummingbird this weekend!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh my , so cute ! Thank you for sharing. And so nice for me to see because it's nothing we have in Sweden.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

These are beautiful pictures and a great story too! It's funny somehow to think of these delicately beautiful birds waging war on each other!

Brian King said...

Fantastic photos! Really nice detail!

Stewart M said...

What great birds!

I'll trade you a few parrots for some humming birds! Deal?

Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne