# Territorial little bugger



## 67drake (May 6, 2020)

One of the things I love about living out in a rural town is all the various birds we get here, especially when they’re migrating through.
I’ve been watching this hummingbird for 3 days now. He (I’m guessing it’s a male) sits on top of the feeders and chases away any other hummingbird. All day long! The other feeders that have feed for other birds he could care less about. I’ve never seen one this territorial before, I assume he’s a new guy, or just passing through.
Hard to get a good pic BTW, they are so skittish.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Looks like a female to me, most likely a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. The females get very protective of food sources this time of year.

If you put up some other feeders out of sight of that one the other birds, mostly young ones this time of year, can come in and get feed from those. 

Don't fill the feeder so full unless they are emptying it every couple days. Sugar water goes bad quickly.


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## Ziptie (May 16, 2013)

We have a small fat one that is doing the same thing. Pushy little bugger.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Yup. Put out two more feeders as far apart as possible.


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## 67drake (May 6, 2020)

Yeah, we didn’t know any better about filling them until we went to a local friends farm about a month ago. She had them swarming everywhere. We asked what she did, and she said she put fresh sugar water in daily after cleaning too. She also told us if it’s too old they don’t like it. So we now clean and fill ours twice a week. 
We do have the two feeders up, but they’re only about 8’ apart. I have another deck about 30’ to the left with bird feeder hangers on it, I suppose I could put one over there too.
Thanks for the tips.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I need to clean my oriole feeder, it's full of dead bald faced hornets. So much for the grape jelly trays, just got hornets, no birds.


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## Snowfan (Nov 6, 2011)

They are fun to watch. We have two hummingbird feeders, two seed feeders, three suet feeders and a bird bath. We sit out in the yard in the evening. We watch birds, look at the gardens and talk while I smoke my pipe and my wife reads. Life is good.


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## doc- (Jun 26, 2015)

The hummingbirds are very active and entertaining. This time of year, not only are they fighting each other, but also the honey bees swarming their feeders. 

Orioles leave our area by the first week of August.

Usually our 10 feeding stations are constantly busy with visiting birds, but this year, the gold finches and house finch numbers are drastically reduced since June.... ???


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

doc- said:


> Usually our 10 feeding stations are constantly busy with visiting birds, but this year, the gold finches and house finch numbers are drastically reduced since June.... ???


Were you in the Periodocal Cicada emergence zone? There were reports of sick birds all over that zone all summer.









Todd Burras: ‘Mystery’ bird illness cases on the decline, Cornell Lab says


"There’s good news for birds and the people who enjoy watching them on the East Coast and parts of the Midwest," Todd Burras writes.



www.amestrib.com


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## doc- (Jun 26, 2015)

Danaus29 said:


> Were you in the Periodocal Cicada emergence zone? There were reports of sick birds all over that zone all summer.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


No, we're not...If you look at the propaganda issued by the very profitable "Non-Profit Organizations" like Audubon Soc, they claim there's a salmonella epidemic going on-- hard to believe considering salmonella is a routine colonial in avians, and it only seems to be affecting the finch family...Finches, BTW, are subject to fairly wide, periodic swings in populations every few years--Many natural populations are. The cicada is an extreme example.

The last time our ea (Brood XIII) had an irruption (2007) I noticed the butterfly populations increased enormously. Te plentiful cicada must have allowed the BFs to be spared. I wasn't in a position then to note bird populations, but they should have been higher too, what with all that extra food available.


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## Steveear (Sep 9, 2021)

Nectar guard tips are barriers that only hummingbird beaks can penetrate. They are made of a clear, open, and adaptable material that closes after a hummingbird beak penetrates it. It also keeps the nectar fluid inside it – which also prevents it from attracting bees. The sweetness of the homemade nectar affects which animals it will attract. I discovered that as long as only add 1 cup of sugar to 4 cups of water, it only attracts hummingbirds. This is my starting recipe. If somehow, it is still too sweet that it attracts bees, I add more water to dilute the mixture.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

MIL uses the hummingbird tips with great success.

She puts out oriole feeders with orange dye in them. Works a trick. Such pretty birds!


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