Bully bird gives others the boot; how to combat aggressive hummingbird behavior

The hummingbirds in my yard flit through the air with their wings fluttering at nearly 50 miles per hour as their tiny bodies hover above the flowers gathering the nectar that fuels their fast-paced lifestyle.

There are so many hummingbirds that call California home, from Costa’s and Allen’s Hummingbirds to the gorgeous ruby throated hummingbird that many of us see on a daily basis. Many of them call my drought tolerant landscaped yard home and we love just sitting on the front porch to watch them.

Due to the large number of hummingbirds that buzz in and out of our yard and our love of these amazing little creatures feeding on the variety of flowering plants we have, my husband and I decided it was time to invest in some feeders to keep the birds in our yard where we could watch them constantly if we so desired.

After a brief trip to a local home improvement store and some internet research, we now have two hummingbird feeders in the front yard and spend countless hours watching their antics.

As we spent more time watching the hummingbirds, we noticed a pattern of behavior begin to appear. Once of the little fellows who likes to feed in our yard has developed a nasty habit of hogging the sugar water, often times chasing others away to keep the nectar all to himself. We decided to take matters into our own hands and do more research to see what we could find to combat the problem.

What we discovered was what I suspected, aggressive behavior is typically strongest in late spring or early summer when the birds are claiming territory and defending nests. Hummingbirds can be aggressive well into the fall as they defend prime feeding territories to prepare for migration.

We also learned that males are more aggressive at feeders (something I can testify to seeing firsthand) while females are more aggressive near the nest.

The one thing, I know for certain, the aggressive behavior is something truly amazing to observe.

The bully, who we believe is a beautiful Costa’s Hummingbird, is a vocal little fellow when another comes too close to the feeders. He literally goes crazy with a super-loud, fast-paced chirp and chittering.

If the noise doesn’t scare the others away, he resorts to flaring his gorget showing off his colors in a move we discovered is a sign of his strength to dissuade intruders. Sometimes he flares his tail or raises his wings while pointing his bill at the other hummingbirds attempting to access the feeders.

Most of the time, the other hummingbirds are not impressed by his shows of strength and they dive right into the feeders to grab a quick bite, but the Costa’s then takes flight, angrily chittering and chasing the other birds away from his food source.

While the antics of this particular bird were entertaining to watch, we began to feel bad for the other birds who were unable to feed and took to the internet once again to see how we could combat the problem.

The solutions offered were actually simple, moving the feeders further apart, adding more feeders and placing the feeders in different locations were a few of the steps we tried. Other suggestions included pruning the Costa’s favorite perch and removing any causes of aggression to reduce stress on the bird.

I am happy to report that by putting up more feeders in the backyard, in addition to those in the front, our hummingbirds seem to have come to an understanding. While the less dominant ones are now feeding out of the backyard (save a newcomer or two who must learn the pecking order of the feeders) our Costa’s Hummingbird feeds out front, all by himself where he continues to get fat and happy.