Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Hummingbird 'Fighters'

The hummingbirds keep us company all summer, very interesting to watch and listen to. Their chirrups let us know they're in the yard even when we can't see them. These two were having a territory dispute, so they're both male. One would be feeding on the fuchsia, the other would fly in, and the "dogfight" would commence; the hummingbirds doing spirals around each other, dodging and weaving, chirruping at each other, sometimes very aggressively. They fly so quickly that they are incredible to watch. They even zoom up and around us as we watch from the deck 5 feet away. They don't seem to be afraid of us, though they are aware of us. Several times they have flown up to us, hovered within a foot or two of our faces, just looking, then flown away. My husband was weeding around the fuchsia, and they still came to it. We've had four or five together at a time, which must have been a family group. Getting these two on film together was a fun challenge; but, just watching and listening is a fascinating daily circumstance.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We have two females. I have not see a male here this summer. We don't have a Fuschia though so that might be the attraction. I like the enlargement.