The May 2001 issue of Reader's Digest had a good article on hummingbirds, "So Tiny, So Sweet...So Mean". It was originally published in Smithsonian. Check it out online at Smithsonian Magazine's site: http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues00/sep00/hummingbirds.html
Hummingbirds: So Tiny, So Sweet....So Mean
I have one at my feeder that rules that feeder. Chases away all the others.LOL Thinks it is his own personal feeder. Had to put others out futher away so the others could eat.
I know what you mean! We have one feeder hanging from the gutter at the front of our house, and another one on the office window at the back. I get such a kick out of them coming up to the window. They're fearless - if we get up next to the glass, they dart back a little at first, but then hover face-to-face with us to check us out. There are at least two females that come to this feeder, and they are fiercely territorial about it, body-slamming each other out of the way sometimes. You can hear the impacts! LOL.
LOL Yep they are tiny but they ram each other hard. Reminds me of they way the big horned rams butt heads. There is a smaller one that sneaks in on the back side and steals nectar LOL Love them Grandson (Buddy) runs to the window and scares them off before he can see them. He calls them bugs.
My husband and I were out on a drive once and saw dozens of ruby-throated hummers buzzing around a large feeder. It was incredible - a swarm of color! We never get more than one at a time, I suppose because we don't have large feeders with lots of ports.
Lady down the road from us has 15-20 at a time. You can stand under branches and they buzz you LOL She has about 10 feeders out usually. This year I noticed she just has about 3 or 4. Can you get into chat? I haven't had any luck getting in.
I got my first visit this past Saturday, May 26 I have 3 feeders and my neighbor has 1 they were ignoring her feeder all week, so we put some red food colouring in it this morning and that seemed to do the trick, now each one of the 4 that we have spotted so far has its own feeder. My husband put bells on the cats today "Early warning system" and he asked our other neighbor to put a bell on her cat too.
Michele - Cool, you have hummers!! You might want to discontinue using red food coloring, though. The jury's out on this, but there are some sources which say it may harm them. Having red somewhere on the feeder is usually sufficient to keep them coming, especially if they've discovered it and dined there. :o)
My feeders are red in colour (big apples) so I don't normally put dye in mine, we only put the dye in our neighbors so that they would notice it, she really wanted o hummingbird of her own.
Back in college, I did some surveying. To make it easyer to see me in the woods I painted an old metal hardhat bright red. Yep, one day a hummer thought that I was the biggest flower he ever saw! Quiet startling to have a hummer an inch from your face, trying to eat at your hardhat!