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| Checking out the dogs! |
The Costa’s hummingbird is
definitely the class clown at my feeder in Las Vegas. He not only owns my
property – just ask him – he entertains me constantly. I guess that is enough
payment to me for his taking over ownership. He is the tamest of hummingbirds.
He doesn’t care if I open the sliding glass door while he is sitting at the
feeder. The only thing that bothers him is the dogs. If my two dogs join me out
on the patio he gets a little concerned. Otherwise he couldn’t care less if I
am sitting six feet away; he’ll come visiting the feeder.
Visiting? No, claiming
proprietorship. He happily chases all the other hummers away as soon as they
attempt to get a sip. The only way they manage to sneak in is if he is off
defending the feeder on the other side of the house.
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| Busy feeding with his gorget flaring out |
He’ll sit at the feeder for 15 or
20 minutes or more. During that time he may preen himself or simply look around
for possible claim
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| The contortions he has to go through to preen |
jumpers. If I wonder which bird is at the feeder, I have
only to wait for a minute. If it sits there without drinking for more than a
minute it is probably the Costa’s.
In the morning when I am out
watering the plants and taking care of the feeder I hear a distinct whistle. At
first I didn’t have a clue where it was coming from or what was responsible for
it. I tried to locate its source. It sounded like a hummer, but the only time I
had heard anything similar was when I watched a male hummer displaying to a
female sitting in the tree. He dove down in front of her and then came back up
like a pendulum. In the process his wings made a whistling noise. Because that was the only time I had ever
heard anything similar, I walked around my yard watching for some type of
display. All I saw was the black-chinned hummer sitting at the very top of the
tallest cypress on my neighbor’s property catching flies. I knew that it wasn’t
him. He was too busy fly catching to be whistling too.
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| The 'old man' with a handle bar mustache |
After I heard the whistling for the
first time, I kept hearing it every morning. Finally the source revealed
itself. The Costa’s flew out of the Mock Orange bush that grows next to my
patio to chase another hummer away, came back and perched on the feeder. Then
he lifted his bill, arching his back in the process and let out his whistle. He
was my whistler!
Later on I went online to the
Cornell ornithological site. There I found a recording of the sound of the
Costa’s. It was the same whistle I had been hearing for days.
My Costa’s will be leaving in a few
weeks giving me back my property, but I will be lonely without my class clown
to keep me entertained.
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