I had a simple question for Emma Greig at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Why are hummingbirds such jerks? Except, I didn’t use the word “jerks.” I used a word you might employ if someone cut you off on the Beltway, as in: “Hey, [word that means ‘jerk’ but is ruder]!”
Greig chuckled. She knew exactly what I meant: Basically, why can’t hummingbirds play nice with one another?
Each spring I hang a nectar feeder in my backyard, then patiently await the first hummer. And the second. I dream of a whole passel of hummingbirds getting drunk on the sweet syrup, the way multiple birds partake of my seed-filled feeder on the other side of the yard.
But noooo. Not for the hummingbird the temporary detente that exists at an African watering hole. If one hummingbird is at the feeder and a second comes along, a fight breaks out. One dive-bombs the other, driving it off. Though there is space for three hummingbirds to sip simultaneously at the feeder — and there are perches aplenty for others to wait patiently — that never happens. These guys and gals seem engaged in an eternal blood feud. What gives?
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That’s why I called Greig, who runs the Cornell Lab’s Project FeederWatch, an annual survey of birds conducted from November to April. As part of that program, respondents can track the jerkiness quotient in birds. Well, they actually call it “aggression,” but you get the point.
“We could really quantify who are the toughest birds,” Greig said. “For their body size, hands down, the most aggressive bird is the rufous hummingbird.”
They’re more aggressive than blue jays and crows, she said.
We rarely get the rufous in the Washington area, but we do get its cousin, the ruby-throated hummingbird. And it seems just as aggressive. It might as well take its motto from that Tom Petty song: “I Won’t Back Down.”
Greig said there’s a reason they won’t back down. Hummingbirds are accustomed to feeding at patches of flowers, where each blossom contains just a teensy-tiny amount of life-giving nectar.
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“They have to keep visiting these over and over again,” Greig said. “What they’ve evolved to do is defend these flower patches, these territories in which they have food resources.”
And so, she said, “Their personalities are all about defense. That’s why they’re such jerks at feeders. It really is their nature.”
To a hummingbird, a nectar feeder is “like a humongous, never-ending flower.” But they don’t know it’s never-ending, which is why they drive off rivals. When a resource is limited, you protect it at all costs.
I’ve seen ruby-throated hummingbirds of both sexes drive each other away from our feeder. Around breeding time, males can be especially aggressive. “Males will maintain a little territory,” Greig said. “There are two benefits to having a territory: protecting your food and protecting your mate. A male hummingbird does not want his mate to be exposed to other male hummingbirds.”
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To be honest, even though the hummingbirds at my feeder refuse to chill, I still get excited when I see one. They are nature’s drones, zipping up and down, back and forth, hovering in place, then rocketing away. Their moves would leave a “Top Gun” pilot in the dust.
I asked Greig what she finds so appealing about hummingbirds.
“They are just a real evolutionary extreme,” she said. “They have such small bodies and fast-moving wings and can move in every direction. I just think they’re a cool bird.”
They’re almost more insect than bird.
Said Greig: “I think that’s part of the appeal. They’re just kind of weird.”
There’s another thing, too.
“Because they are so fast and agile, they are not particularly afraid of large, slow-moving giants like humans,” Greig said. “I think they’re very willing to come up and look at your shirt — if it’s a colorful shirt — and get a real close look. They are so agile, curious and fearless.”
I guess the only thing that’s a match for a hummingbird is … another hummingbird. No wonder they mix it up with each other.
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