Sunday, May 15, 2011

Morning has Broken, 10

There's a war going on at Busy Solitude Farm.  (No, not that war in the barn.  That's a different conflict.)  It's the Sugar Water War, fought each year by the male hummingbirds whose territoriality is legendary.

This little guy is currently "King of the Mountain."

He perches on the hook, looking all around for the challengers.  Currently there are two challengers.  Three beautiful boys fighting mid-air, screeching and zipping, to control the sugar water and win the ladies' hummingbird hearts.

You can watch a little bit of the zipping here. 

Every once in a while they pause and all refresh themselves with sugar water.  Which makes it appear to be more of a collegial exercise rather than blood sport.

I hope the ladies are impressed.

2 comments:

MaryEllen Schneider said...

Well, this lady was impressed! Love hummingbirds but we seldom see in Chicago so we stopped putting out the feeder.

The JR said...

I hope none of them get hurt.