Hummingbirds

Jimalberta · January 30, 2015

Its seems like the Rufous Hummingbird has reached mating season. At least we had a couple males displaying their prowess out here in the desert and ..wow...it is amazing to watch. The little guys will hover and then rise straight up about 2 hundred feet and then dive. They come straight down to about a foot off the ground and swoop making a screechy pop and then go back up. Can those little guys ever move!

2gypsies · January 30, 2015

They are also very feisty at feeders. They want it all to themselves. Neat birds!

LindaH · January 30, 2015

One year we stayed at Marshall Park Campground near Creede, CO. The camp hosts had several hummingbird feeders out and there were dozens of Rufous Hummingbirds flying around...each space at the feeders was taken with more hovering overhead waiting their turn. It reminded me of an airport where planes are circling waiting to land.

Chalkie · February 1, 2015

For many years my parents lived in the Colorado mountains. They had so many hummingbirds in the summer that an ornithologist requested that she could set up a bird banding operation on their property. It was very interesting to observe. Hummingbirds have an amazing range for such little creatures. Some the birds that were banded were later identified as far away as Mexico and ALASKA!

vermilye · February 1, 2015

I spent 304 days traveling around the US over the Fall, Winter & Spring of 2013 - 2014 and put up a hummingbird feeder at every stop that allowed it (most of the National Parks frowned on it). I was always amazed that within a few hours hummingbirds showed up, even in the middle of the desert. In most cases, more than one, one of which would "take possession" of the feeder & spend most of his time chasing the others away. Took lots of photographs:

Jimalberta · February 4, 2015

So far I have identified Rufous, Anna and a little one that has bright purple head and throat ...Costas I believe.

KodiakJack · February 4, 2015

Agree the photo appears to be a Costa's. We had a Costa's visit our feeder on Kodiak Island once. Had to send 100 photos and 30 minutes of video on disk to the 3 universities in Alaska for verification. Only other hummer we had visit there was the Rufus. So yep these birds are well traveled.

Later,

J

PS Our place in Boquete Panama had 21 species of hummingbirds with often many hundreds present during daylight hours. We put them on a ration of 5-pounds of sugar at day. We cut them back to this when we peaked out at 10-pounds of sugar in a single day mixed at 4:1.