Bully Hummingbirds! How to Reduce Aggression and Aggressive Males
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- Опубліковано 26 чер 2024
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I have 4 feeders and tons and tons of flowers I have a bully bird who literally flies over my house to protect the feeder out back and out front. He's nuts.
Brittany Myers
SAME!!
I have 3 feeders out back and and 2 feeders in my front yard.
I have hanging baskets of 🌺 flowers everywhere. I also have 2 Bird baths I keep with fresh water all the time. I noticed a very Aggressive Hummingbird that chases away about 7 other Hummingbirds all day long! I'm shocked how aggressive this Hummingbird is!
let nature BE mature. stop interfering because it mimics a part of your life you hate
I now have the same problem. Did you ever figure out how to stop the bully?
@weathergirl369cloud we are nature. We are animals. What are you on about?
I have one too. It sits on the telephone line running thru the tree and watches. The other birds were there 1st
I had a Rufous Hummingbird come in to my yard two summers ago. Even though he was beautiful in orange and rust colors he was a huge bully! I had 5 hummingbird feeders, 4 spaced out in back and 1 in front. He would sit on a branch way up top of my cherry tree and guard all 4 feeders out back including flower pots I had around my yard, running off every hummingbird!! The only feeder the birds had a chance at was the one in the front yard. He was here for months!! Luckily, he didn’t come back the following summer!
I have a couple of feeders here at home. I can´t believe that the hummingbirds put pressure on me to refill the feeder! I have the feeders in my balcony, if I notice hummingbirds flying near my home office window I just know the feeder is empty. They start hovering with their beaks glued to my window, just staring at me like " FEEDER. REFILL. NOW." Thanks for the tips, I noticed the bully here, there is a big ass hummingbird that just doesn´t allow others to come and drink, he is on a constant stake out, keeping guard. Today I noticed two little hummingbirds on the floor of my balcony, one was shocked, I Don´t know what happened,, I think he was a bit concussed and recovering, must have crashed into another one mid air. One of his buddies was next to him, waiting for him to get better. I approached them and they did not even care, even allowed me to pet them. I am pretty sure they know me. The big one and his gang are of a different kind of humming bird, they have some white parts on them, whereas these little ones are all greenish/blueish, they have those feathers that reflect a metallic color.
Rollo Tape
How's your Hummingbird's doing now? My Hummingbird's do the same when my feeder's get low or empty. They fly in front of my kitchen window or if I'm upstairs in the Bathroom...I see them come close to the Large Bathroom window... telling me to fill the feeders now!😆
Good thing I already have 16 feeders, one cannot guard them all . hahahaha
I noticed it by doing it for more than 3 months. thanks for your video. It confirms what I was thinking. I have more than 70 individual humming birds coming everyday, I lost counting them. and I am enjoying watching them every moments.
What a beautiful creatures they are !! Watching them flying, feeding, chasing each other makes my soul smiling !!
I found out too by trial and error. I have 6 feeders and planning to get more.
You sterilize all of these feeders? 3 times a week in the warmer months? If you do, you are a disciplined person!
@@thomasprislacjr.4063 I am cleaning all the feeders every day cause they are emptying all the feeders .
Takes about 1 hour . I am thinking reducing the # of feeders to 12.
@@thomasprislacjr.4063 I don't think you have to 'sterilize' the feeders every nectar change. I change my nectar three times a week and simply rinse and dry the feeders. No mold forms when I do that. If I were to go a week, then I'd sterilize. And proper cleaning is pretty easy; rinse, wipe, soak in vinegar and water mixture for an hour, rinse, dry, fill with nectar and you're done.
😮 70 hummers 🥰
Listening to you talk about snag branches, and looking up to see my bully hanging out on a dead branch where he can see the feeder. 😂
Me too!!!! 🤣
Thanks a lot! I have a crazy male guarding my feeder!! He even chases females off!! Your tips really helped!!
It's really fascinating to watch. We have a male that will literally perch on the shepherd's pole we hang one of our feeders on and he constantly looking around for another to chase off LOL.
Seeing them fight in the air is interesting it's like a hummingbird tornado. They lock eyes and spin in a circler motion flying straight up then dart off.
I have one too! He’s perched on the hook just glowering and fending off any bird who gets close.
Yes! I have a video of them doing that (slow motion) . Not uploaded to YT but in my personal home videos.
@@ms.anonymousinformer242 You should post.
Great video. Michelle and I have been watching a "bully hummingbird" all season and have learned from this video. Thank you.
Heyyy good to hear from ya Steve! Yeah there’s a few things we can do to help reduce aggression but as much as we would all like them to get along in the end males being territorial is normal hummingbird behavior and how they would behave in the wild when they find a good patch of flowers. I just do what I can to try to give them all an equal opportunity to try their luck among each other haha thanks for watching and hope to see you sometime soon once I get back home
We are looking forward to seeing you and the fam when we get up that way. Congratulations on all you've accomplished. I really enjoy watching your UA-cam videos.
Very helpful
What a pleasant young man you are! You look to me like someone this old grandma would love to have as a neighbor. I bet you don't have a boom box blaring from your car. You seem very respectful. And gave some great tips, I too have a bully hummingbird, so I will try to space feeders further apart.
Great info. Thanks. I put out a feeder yesterday and right away noticed one bird fighting off any other one that tried to take a drink. I guess I’ll add some more feeders.
People new to birding: If you have hummingbird feeders, please know that you have to sterilize them constantly -- at least 3x a week in summertime. Once a week in wintertime. Otherwise, bacteria grows in them. This can be fatal to hummers. I question the wisdom of putting up a lot of feeders -- because you absolutely have to clean then. As was mentioned here, put up natural sources of nectar; even in wintertime you can put up Yuletide camellias or pineapple sage, for example, that bloom all through November.
I have pineapple sage that did great the past couple years but this year shortly after the flowers started blooming, they all died and fell off…and never grew back!? Any ideas on what caused this?
This was very helpful!! Thank you for the advice and ideas!
Thanks a lot! I have a crazy male guarding my feeder!! Your tips really helped!!
Thank you for the information on hummingbirds! 🌼
This is a great video with a lot of helpful info. Thank you!
I've got two feeders coming down from my overhang, one with a perch and one without, I just spaced them out further to try to mitigate my bully boy. Great video
You've relieved a lot of stress for me. I thought it was something I was doing wrong. I've seen photos of 20 or more hummingbirds all gathered around a circle of feeders seemingly happy as can be. I have three feeders right now. I guess I'll get more. Thanks..
That’s also different for different locations. Rock wall Texas is a big pit stop for the birds so those picture of 20+ at a feeder are from places with high concentration. I at most have 5-6 at a time and usually not that many
Great Video and Excellent tips for dealing with this Situation!!
Very educational! Thank you 😊
THANK YOU!! I looked you up and you answered my call! Perfect! 👍
Thanks so much! Very good advice! 🙂👍
once I started hanging out on patio close to feeder , making sure they recognize me as the source of that daily refill of filtered sugar water that are all friendly to me . I felt like the one sitting on my feeder hanger was just telling me
" yeah I'm comfortable enough to sit with you " any and all animals even fish will respond to food love
same here
Yep same here. When its feeder refill time , they start flying around looking for it and if they see me they fly over to where I am , or at the window to watch me.
SAME!! I have a Cherry Tomato 🍅 vine near on of my feeder's. I was on a step stool picking tomatoes & a Hummingbird landed on my right shoulder. He definitely recognized I was supplying it with food! He wasn't afraid at all😊
Put your additional feeders out of sight of each other for maximum benefit.
If your birds stay through the Winter, they might be Anna’s Hummingbirds. They are found in the western US. Very territorial, usually one bird per feeder. If many of your birds share a feeder, they are likely a species that goes south for the Winter to tropical climes. Some believe those birds share because there’s so much food in their southern habitats there’s no need to fight.
Well presented young man. Off to watch another one of your videos. Take care from Ontario/Canada.
I'm dealing with this on my patio; one bully too aggressive for his own good. Sadly, I do not have space for more than two feeders. But I did think of this as a means to spread out the feeders. I love to watch them feed, but I get annoyed that one bully is scaring off all the other birds. I thought of him gone, but then realized another one would just take his place... it is just their nature. So, one of the things I noticed or our little bully, he likes to sit in a tree not far from our patio that give him a bird-eye view of the feeder. So, I move the feeder down below the fence line just out of sight of his perch and view. But then I notice he just got higher up the tree to surveil the feeder -- that little bugger. So, I just moved the feeder back into its regular spot. When he's out chasing other birds, some other HBs do manage to get a drink. But he's back quickly to guard his feeder.
Thanks for the info! You brought up some points I haven't heard on other videos out there :-)
Thanks! Very informative!
Thanks I found your method better compared to hummingbird spots method.
Thanks for the information!
Anna’s hummingbirds are the most common in my area. I feed all year 365 days, they do not leave even in 4* f a few weeks ago. We revived 1 and another that was outside frozen to the feeder, we brought inside. To warm up. Feed I bought a heated feeder.
Excellent video thanks so much
Really enjoyed this. Thank you!
Great video! Thank you!
Great video everything you said is 100% what we are seein!
Excellent Video Brother !
Mee too I have hung 4 feeders and love to have their visits in my yard
Such blessings to see them so close to me
Thank you so much , I'm new to feeding hummingbirds, and so far only have 1 feeder and I have a Bully young male and like 7 or 8 hummingbirds comming to this 1 feeder and he chases every one off every day, I'm gonna get more for sure.i feel so bad for the others that he does this.i will definitely take your suggestions and keep watching. 🥰 I love to watch them especially when doing my dishes, feeder is hung outside my kitchen window.They are beautiful
Thanks for the info.
Thank you for the info!
awesome thanks!
When I go out to feed my animals, I make sure all the bird feeders have plenty of food in them. I'm there for an hour and a half usually. Approximately 15 minutes of that time is preparing grain for my horse and donkey. Another 10 mins is spent watering my watermelon. The rest of the time is spent filling 3 squirrel proof feeders and cleaning and refilling 3 hummingbird feeders as needed. Then I sit in my lawn chair and watch all the birds while I wait for my animals to finish. I said all that to explain that the majority of my time I'm watching the hummers. I have seen one gorgeous male hummer (ruby throated). The rest are aggressive little females. Evidently he had been a very busy boy. But those little females only share a feeder at the end of the day and early morning. Otherwise they are chasing each other off the feeders.
Very helpful information! We have one bully bird on a snag branch which has a great
vantage point to the 2 feeders we have. We’re thinking of getting more and maybe
clipping off the branch…but maybe not! We enjoy watching him in action!😂
Good for them and good for you.
Me and my husband have five hummingbird feeders. We're originally both from North Carolina. But we moved to South Carolina a little over two and a half years ago and every since we moved into our home we seen the hummingbirds so we put up hummingbird feeders.. Late February mid-march every year like clockwork. But this year the main female and the main male that would be territorial over the feeders. Arrived late this year so I had about 7 hummingbird that just popped up. Okay well I keep my feeders changed we make homemade nectar they like that better than the store bought. But nevertheless there is a tree that this particular male hummingbird sits in. off to the side of my yard that I knew for sure when the one male hummingbird arrived he always sits in that tree. He will stare at all the feeders and every now and then he'll let the hummingbirds get a little bit of sugar water but if he feels like they're there too long he'll start attacking them. even though it's supposed to be a territorial thing. most of them are females that come. But nevertheless I have plenty of features put up . And he acts like he just wants to be the only one eating off of all five fingers . I watched this video and maybe it can teach me something to do a little different. But I think they are so beautiful. Thanks for your video.
I also have two hummingbird feeders in my yard. There is an aggressive male here too. However, my feeders are far enough apart that they barely run into one another. All this talk about viciousness among hummers, is never mentioned on specials or documentaries. These hummers are treated with reverence as the jewels of the sky. And they are. I’ve been entertained all summer.
Thank you for sharing 👍
Thank you for making this video. I’ve been watching and feeding My Hummies for going on 4 years now; this year, we have a bully - (quite a chubby bully at that!) 😉 He has appointed himself the King of our yard! I have four feeders up and he tries to take ownership of every one of them!
Well, after watching your very helpful video, I’m going to put what I’ve learned to use - immediately!
I’ll let you know how it goes.
Thank you!
Please do! Would love to hear it!
@@TheMoreYouGrow it’s been a success! I now have 8 feeders up and no more Bully! (Well, for now!) I don’t think he knows what hit him - he tried darting after the many Hummies that now, happily feed and get their fill, but finally gave up and relinquished his self-appointed authority! My front, back and side yards are quite busy spots now, with various species of beautiful Hummingbirds! Thank you for your very enlightening video. Happy Humming!! 🌷
THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS VIDEO 🙏 I HAVE TWO FEEDS AND MAYBE 3 BIRDS AND I LOVE WATCHING THE HUMMINGBIRDS 💓 IF I PUT OTHER FEEDERS OUT WHERE I CAN'T SEE THEM, AND I'M GLAD THERE'S MANY NATURAL FLOWERS THEY CAN DRINK🇺🇸😎
I have one feeder in the front of the house and one in the back and that’s enough for two older people to keep clean and fill! I call the two “guys, “Bully Boid..” Here in San Jose, CA the Anna’s stay and seem to share nicely through the winter. I’m kinda for leaving them to their own devices, as they never seem to physically harm each other. And then “Star Wars” are fun. Nature knows best most of the time ~ 🌹
Thanks!
Agree, love hummingbirds. My favorite feeder is first nature flat bottom feeder. I have 3 feeders helps the bullies.
Tank you - so helpful
Thank you
Thanks for the tips. I removed his favorite branch, and it seems to be working… for now.
Thanks for the advice. I just filled all 4 feeders. I don't have time to move them closer together right now but I will later today.
Just to clarify, it’s best if you move them farther apart. So they can’t all be guarded by one hummingbird.
Have had trouble in the past with aggressive hummingbirds. I usually space the feeders about 15 feet apart, 4 of them. Seems to do the trick, however, sometimes a hyper aggressive bird will manage to run others off of 2 or three feeders. You mentioned Turks Cap as a natural food source. I agree, the humming birds really go for them, but that plant is a growth monster. You have to have a good amount of room for it. I finally got sick of pruning it back, up to 6 times per year and removed them. I need another natural source that doesn't take over the yard. Thanks for the video.
Liatris would be a good one that won’t take over your yard.
LOL you just explained everything I've been observing in a new home. I bought a second feeder today and now seeing this video. Appreciate the info! I definitely have a male with a favorite branch--- however this one is just out of reach, to break off haha!
Tie a rock or something with a little weight to a rope and throw it up around the branch then grab both of ends and try to break the branch if it’s a small enough to break by pulling. Just an idea.
Buy four more feeders. 2 is good but and not enough. The more the merrier. You'll have more birds and less reason for them to defend territory
The more feeders you have the more hummingbirds you will get!
THANK You 🙏🏽
This year, their is a male "chad" Hummingbird who has domination over 5 feeders. Though, they are all on the back porch so fairly close together. He spends much of his time living the life and just perches on the porch less than a foot from a feeder all day. I might be able to do something by spreading the feeders out a bit more.
It usually helps. Just because they struggle to get from one feeder to another despite their best efforts 😂😂
I have an aggressive female that is guarding my cluster of feeders! She just started!
I have about eight of them I have nine feeder. I have a new one this year he is green and white and has red under his neck. L just love them
I have about 10-12 hummingbirds & 6 feeders… seems to me as I sit on my porch watching, that they are all fighting & not just one bully.
Today witnessed cute little angry guy flying straight up to the sky and then, sioer fast with loud wistle-like noise he was flying super close to another one sitting on the branch close to a feeder. He did that about 5 times until the other one just left. Serched youtube and your video explained it well 😊 Did not know they are THAT territorial 🤔 Also buying few more feeders 🤗
Good to know because I witnessed for the first time today they were fighting over the feeder so now I just need to add more
I'm in Georgia. Do you think the humming birds will staying over the winter or they are going to leave and where will they go? Thank you for your information. You're the first to talk about bird agression! Thanks a lot
The birds even in Georgia will migrate before winter. The Georgia hummingbirds most often just fly over the Gulf of Mexico and over winter in central and South America
I got an agressive one, it's been chasing out others. I removed that from that location and to another. I've placed two feeders close together. So far many have been feeding.
Thanks, now I know what the problem is; my feeders are too close together.
Here in Brazil the most popular hummingbirds living in urban areas is the "Beija-flor tesoura" (Swallow tailed hummingbird) but with 5 feeders on my yard the "Leader" still keep aggressive with another neighbor hummingbirds and another birds. This swallow tailed hummingbird is very angry.
They are very protective. Do you have a big yard?
I have four hummingbirds in San Antonio fighting over the feeder all the time.
Great video, just needed a razorback shirt instead of that a&m shirt on.
Thank you. I have some new hummingbirds this year the same came back this year. The red throated hummingbird runs and chases all of them im constantly yelling at him I just want all the hummingbirds he needs to stop. I'll put more feeders and space them out.
I do the same! Lol
The neighbors probably think your nuts!!
@@panterita1177 meeee toooo
How tall are those Shepard’s hooks? I have two 6 foot ones that go in the ground (one is a little crooked) because I can’t transport anything longer and I worry they will fall of too heavy. I live in an apt so they are in front on public view among plants.
Mariakayc mine are 6 ft. I don’t fill my feeders up all the way. First, because I change the food out every two days so I would be wasting most of of it if I were to fill it all the way. I only put about 1/2 cup in each feeder at a time. Second, so that the feeders aren’t too heavy and make the hooks bend and fall over. If the bending is still a concern shorter hooks are fine too, just wouldn’t get a super short one. Hope this helps!
We went from 4 to 9 feeders over three neighbors yards and everyone is getting along better then last year we had about 16 last year and some of them would sit and watch one feeder and be a butthead .
“Butthead” Bahahahahahahahahaha
Thank u so much! I'm going to give it a go n see what happens. I'm also having to move the feeders now bc of bees! I've never had this problem before. Very frustrating for the birds n myself. It breaks my heart everytime they come to there regular spot. I have a big tree with snag branches where I could put the other feeder. The problem, it's right by all the other bird feeders. Maybe 15, 20 ft. away. Advise please🙏
I find that some times putting the feeder in the shade helps more for bees sometimes. Moving the feeder sometimes also helps because bees have a set location that the relay to the others of the feeder location and on top of that they mark it with pheromones so the others can find it. So for bees I would say wash the whole feeder really well (be sure to rinse well) and move the feeder location. Doesn’t always work but sometimes it does. I also just spray them with the water hose sprayer from a distance and if you make it annoying enough they will leave sometimes too. I don’t blast them or anything just enough they don’t want to just hang out. And if you want to try putting it by the tree just move the other bird feeder. Song birds really don’t care where their feeder is, they just go where the seed is lol
@@TheMoreYouGrow Thank you so much this information is so valuable to me! Thank you! I spent yesterday all freaked out over this.I hated disrupting the hummers lives, but they seem fine(knock on wood.) There isn't any fighting bc I moved them a little further a part. So, so far everything you've told me is all solid, quality, wonderful, advice!!! Thank you for helping me!!❤❤🤗🤗😊😊
I have 8 feeders spread around my house on 2 sides. I have what i believe to be 1 extreme bully guarding them all. He sits in a pine tree where he can observe them all and ruthlessly attacks any that come near. i didn't mind in the summer when there was plenty of food sources for the others around but now there is snow on the ground and he wont allow any others to feed.Now there is snow on the ground and he is super aggressive with other hummers and i worry they will starve in this freezing weather. I go out in the morning and remove the snow and defrost the feeders. At times i have seen as many as 6 at a time but as soon as 1 lands on a feeder he attacks and drives them away. nothing funny about him
I know exactly how you feel so so sad but also so so mad at the bully. It is very frustrating and you feel like you’ve lost control.
I know exactly how you feel so so sad but also so so mad at the bully. It is very frustrating and you feel like you’ve lost control.
Hate the thought of maintaining 4 or more feeders, but I got bully issues. Thinkin about making my own system using vinyl hose, with attractive piercings properly spaced along its length, and a single reservoir. Don't know zackly how to rig it yet, just thinkin out loud. Yes, I'm crazy.
You wouldn’t necessarily have to have 4, they’d just the number that worked in my yard, I feel ya though. That’s a good idea though! They make something similar to that that I’ve seen online but should be easy to make and they sell the feeder flowers pretty cheap 🤔. If I end up making one on the channel next year I’ll give ya credit 😜
I'm still waiting for some practical & workable inspiration from my "Inner Bean". lol. I was concerned that cheap enough plastic hose will taint the nectar, plus the distance apart really throws a wrench in the gears. As I write this it occurred to me to use rigid PVC or CPVC pipe instead, for the perch, mounting clips and all. Perhaps such a "Linear feeder" could be mounted on a wrap around deck rail, or under soffit. Possibly even plumbed so reservoir is indoors. What about "Blinders" set up between...Hmmm...What if a single "possessed" feeder was covered, lampshade style, still allowing access from top and bottom, but makin it harder for the male to spot intruders and get to them? It would catch more wind for one...
@@TheMoreYouGrow How would you keep the inside of the hose clean and not grow mold?
It seems like humming birds tricked you in to give more food out 🤔
Haha not really. More feeders spaced out further=more birds for me to watch so the birds and I both win 😁
I put one of mine on a branch of a bush. Works great
You do gt make sure other branches don't touch the feeder though. Otherwise you get ants
This is great info, but I think I'm stuck with the male rufous hummingbird, a particularly aggressive species, I've read. I already have two hanging feeders and he guards both! Also, his "perch" is the telephone wire outside of my balcony, so I can't take that away from him. I have one more standing hook where I can put a third feeder, but I don't have a large back yard. I'm so sad because at least three more want to eat here and he's chasing them all away. But if you have any other suggestions, I'm all ears. Thanks again.
Might enlist your neighbors and see if anyone else would also like to attract these beautiful birds to their yard!
okay not trying to be a creeper or anything but you are too cute! Like in a best friend sort of way, who I would probably occasionally dote over . 🤭 Plus your voice is for lack of a better word, very "smooth". I easily could've watched 10 more minutes of you talking about hummingbirds 😄
Lol well this comment made my day 😂 I very much appreciate the compliments!
So I’ve always read never put red dye in their food?? I noticed you do?? Isn’t that harmful?? Thanks for the awesome videos!!
I do not put dye in my feed. It’s not necessary and yes questionably harmful. It looks that way in the middle feeder just reflecting from the base. But if you look at the other 2 they are both clear
We are having a bit of a cold snap in Portland right now, and all of a sudden an Anna's that has had no issue sharing 2 feeders in my backyard is now spending most of his waking hours chasing off another Anna's.
The little jerk. There's plenty for both, and the other one could use the calories at this time of year.
As a matter of fact, I really don't understand how these little Anna's survive overwintering this far north. Tough little buggers.
I am not far from Seattle and for the firs time have an aggressive hummingbird, it will stay on the feeder for many many hours and if not then on branches near by and chase away any other hummingbird and even other birds too, like nuthatches. I added a second feeder but I had to move it far away so it can't see it.
Smart solution 👍
For us city folk, hummingbirds ARE A NATURAL detergent for mfn pigeons AND flies
I planted several honeysuckle vines, but it didn't help much.
We have 6 fighting over 2 feeders. My God!
Oh my goodness Everything you said to a t is what's going on in my yard He does have a dead branch or however you worded it but it's really high at the very top of my very large lemon tree I can't reach it. I was wondering though Can them mail actually hurt the other hummingbirds? Can he poke the other ones with his long beak and will he?
They could but more so they will try to body slam each other mid air and just try to be the biggest to where the other male flys away
Any suggestions on keeping bees and wasps out of feeders? Seem to find 10-20 dead bees in feeders, I hate that.
You can try making sure the feeders are in the shade. That can help.
Thank you! How often do you have to change out the feeders?
Depends on the temperature. The hotter it is the more often it needs to be changed. Right now I’m changing out every day, but I only put a small amount has to not waste a bunch of nectar
@@TheMoreYouGrow thank you so much! I have one more question. Will hummingbirds chase off other birds? I asked because I need to know whether I need to put their feeders separate from the other types of feeders.
@@CyberTeacher100 no most of the time the hummingbirds shy away from other birds due to being much smaller. I move my seed feeders away from the hummingbird feeders so the other birds don’t intimidate the hummers
i read to reduce sugar content to make it less worthwhile to protect
I have added a little extra sugar and now have an aggressive female guarding my cluster of feeders, everyone has played nice all summer till she showed up! I think I'll cut back some and see if that helps!
@@JW24928 i made a new batch using nearly 40% sugar and now the hummingbirds are going crazy.
@@JW24928 lmao
Great topic. My friend had 3 feeders and all were off limits to all the hummingbirds because of an aggressive male running all the birds off. There were literally dozens of birds trying to come to the feeders and he would run them all off. My friend lost patience and finally dispatched the dominant bird. Now all the rest are feeding with ease. I would hate to do this but sometimes these aggressive males won't let any other birds come to the feeders. Thanks for the great video.
They can be quite the bully. It’s frustrating for me as well but I have to stop and tell myself this is how their world works. I know if I did kill my dominant males (which I wouldn’t) eventually another will rise up to take his place. Having multiple feeders in the right cluster makes it where he can’t physically be at every feeder at once. Thanks for watching!
Alaska Mike “dispatched the dominant male?” What’s that’s supposed to mean?
Dispatched=Killed? 😲
It is a Federal crime to kill a hummingbird under the Migratory Birds Act of 1918. Certainly your friend doesn’t want to go to Federal prison for killing a bird. Usually, Federal prison is a lot worse than state. A lot of states have their own laws about migratory birds, so your friend could face state charges as well. Make sure your friend reads the Act and understands he cannot snuff the life out of any more hummingbirds.
As an aside, if your friend is so callous so as to kill such a delicate, albeit territorial, creature, maybe he should just take his feeders down.
I had several of them eating from my hands then I went on vacation only to return to two ruby red throats that are bullying all my buddies away. I’m now trying to figure out before they head south for winter how to stop the Ruby’s from doing this. There are less hummingbirds coming around because of them. They are absolute jerks to the others. I will try adding a couple more feeders because I only have one right now but I’m so discouraged after losing the ability to hand feed them. I worked hard to get there and now it’s completely gone 😞
That is really cool that you could hand feed them! Hope the video helps solve your problems 👍
I have the misfortune of having three aggressive male hummers as well as power lines all around our house. So all six of my feeders are being guarded and so many shy and timid hummers are chased away :( it makes me so sad.
How do you get rid of them? This is not the Ruby-throat hummingbird that chases all of all of them away.
When there are a few birds drinking peacefully with each other, isn't that because they are from the same family?
Could be! Sometimes birds just coexist when food is abundant and they don’t feel the need to be overly territorial. You never know with these guys lol
What is the best distance for 4 feeders?
Not sure if there’s a set distance but the far enough it’s hard to guard them all at the same time
Cutest freeloaders
I like to encourage the aggression by adding a few drops of vodka to my feeders and offering the winner of each engagement an exclusive fight night bonus of honey.
It doesnt work for mine. They prefer rum !
You must be joking.
@@birhb6372 No
😅
😂
Sorry. Got it now.
Are males the only territorial or can a female be territorial? How do you tell the male/female apart
Females can be aggressive if food is scarce but not as much as males. They are easy to tell apart. Like most birds the males have all the flashy colors and females are mostly grey.
I find the title of the video a little weird when I look at my backyard. My female Anna's Hummingbird is the big boss, and she runs everyone else off, male or female.
Six feeders