Hummers

Here is a photo of one of our black chin hummingbirds.

We have at least four male black chin hummers coming in to the feeders every evening.  They are very difficult to count as they are zooming and fussing and chasing each other.  On top of that, we also get several orioles coming in to feed as the sun is going down.  Totally flusters the hummers who try to intimidate the orioles with fancy helicopter maneuvers like zooming in underneath the feeder and then going straight up to pop in the faces of the orioles.  The orioles are NOT afraid:)  

Sometimes I sing the theme for Star Wars.  Duh duh duhhh dunt.  Duh duh dunt,  Duh duh duh, duntelly duuuuhhh.  They are so dramatic and definitely each one is fighting the battle to be king of the feeders.

Their wings make a buzz noise as they zoom through the yard.  I told Hubby last night as he was going out the front door to be careful.  The hummers are chasing one another over the top of the house and you might end up with one of them stuck into your face with its long pointy needle like beak!  I swear, a couple of times I was worried they would poke my eye out.

They move so fast sometimes my slow eyes don't even see them.  All I hear is the high pitched buzz of the wings.  The guys who fly jet fighters for the Navy over in Fallon probably wish they had the speed and maneuverability of  a hummingbird.

We also have at least one lady hummingbird around here.  The male shows off as she sits sort of low in a bush or on the fence.  The guy goes buzz, buzz, buzz rapidly in front of her, back and forth, back and forth, spooning his tail out as he tries to impress her.  He then zooms up at a bit of an angle, zooms around at the bottom and then zooms up the other way in an eliptical orbit.  He doesn't complete the circle but pauses at the top and zooms back down and up the other way.  Very impressive and if I was a girl hummer, I would want him!