Anna's Hummingbird

Actually, he's MY hummingbird, and my name isn't Anna. But alas, that is the type of hummingbird he is. I finally got some nice shots of him so let me introduce you to BadBoy, my resident Anna's hummingbird. I learned over the weekend that the males find the sweetest flower, with the highest sugar content, and then they defend that flower aggressively. BadBoy has found that in my hummingbird feeder and it's now his, lock, stock and barrel. If others come near his feeder, he dive bombs them. He has a perfect view of the feeder from my apple tree, the neighbors plum tree, or my other neighbors Japanese Maple. If he hears that telltale buzzing of hummer wings, in he dives chirping and cursing in his little hummer voice. It's the same cursing that I hear when the feeder is empty. I shout out the window at him, "I know, I know! I can hear you and your feeder is low. I'll get to it when I'm ready," and he settles down, but only for a bit. Then the cursing continues.

Lately BadBoy has been getting brave. He sits in a low branch on the apple tree and I stood right under him, our faces no more than 6 feet apart. He twitched his head sideways to get a goooood look at me and I eyeballed him and told him how naughty he was to chase the other birds off. He was so comfortable with me that I went inside and grabbed the camera and he posed while I took these shots. Oh, he feigned as if he was frightened and flitted away but he was back within a short 10-15 seconds so I wasn't buying it. We sat and chatted, he turned so I could get a good shot of his green feathers, and then he thought a nice action photo would be nice so he hopped over to the feeder for this last image. Ham, I tell you - he's just a big ham.

Being home all weekend, we usually let the cats roam the backyard if we are out so BadBoy was a little more nervous over the weekend. He'd flit off every time the sliding screen door opened but he'd come right back once he saw the felines were still in the house. I guess underneath, he really is a woosy.

A month ago we had a small female stop by and she wasn't afraid of BadBoy at all. She sat in the flower vines that grow up my patio overhang and hid from him. When the cats came out, she would fly and hover in their faces - I couldn't tell whether she was brave or stupid but she was entertaining, if nothing else. I miss her.