I was sitting at the kitchen table a while ago, and a hummingbird came by and stared in the window quite intently for what seemed like a very long time.  As the animal lover that I am, I know that when an animal takes that much notice of me, it usually means they’re hungry.

So, off I went to acquire a hummingbird feeder.  It’s a pretty big structure with a glass bottle that holds the hummingbird juice, and 6 lovely flower-shaped plastic appendages with bright yellow “stamens” inside, where the hummingbirds get access to the nectar.

I’ve had bird feeders before, but never one for hummingbirds, so I was interested to see what would happen.  It didn’t take long.  I installed the feeder late one day and by the next evening, I had a full complement of tiny little birds hovering all over the place.

I know that hummingbirds are very territorial, and the ones around my house are no different.  They spend a fair amount of their time chasing other hummingbirds away from the feeder so they can eat in peace.

The six flowers at first seemed like overkill, since it seems that only one bird is allowed to feed at a time.  But, then I noticed that some of the birds swooped in, hovered at the feeder and took 4 or 5 sips.  But, others have a great time going from one “flower” to the next.  I wonder if they can taste a difference, or just enjoy hogging the entire feeder.

You know it was going to happen.  The other day I stood very still at the far end of the deck from the feeder and waited.  To my surprise, two birds came zooming in.  In case you’ve never been that close to a hummingbird, I can tell you that they don’t really hum.  It sounds more like a helicopter coming in for a landing.

The first order of business, of course, was to establish which of the two birds was going to have the chance to use the feeder.  One of the birds was behind me making a loud racket with his wings.  The second bird hovered in front of the feeder, squawking loudly. 

I don’t know how to describe their voice.  A description I found online stated:  [the hummingbird's] chase call is a sharp, sputtering zeeek ididididid.   That may be, but I still don’t know how to describe it.

Anyway, the second bird gave up the cause and disappeared.  The victor, for this round anyway, took several aerial hops to get close to the feeder, then in triumph gave his wings a rest, and perched on the edge of the feeder flower to gulp down his prize of lovely red nectar.

There’s really no end to this story.  I just wanted you to know that if you ever think you hear a helicopter in the backyard, it’s probably just a hummingbird.