Hummingbird musical chairs in Las Vegas – when the feeder becomes a revolving door

 Here it is the middle of August and my feeder has become a revolving door for hummingbirds coming through Las Vegas. The early morning starts slow. I see few hummers and hear few hummers. I assume that the hummers that were here yesterday are on their way south, while the hummers coming from the north haven’t gotten here yet.  Then midmorning comes and things start to really pick up with hummers coming and going. The Costa’s stays busy chasing off as many as he can. Then midday comes and no more hummers. It is as though they all just disappeared. This must be good traveling hours for them as they head south. Evening again brings some activity but not like earlier in the day.

. . .flitting off . . .

Drinking at the feeder . . .

During that evening time the Costa’s has the feeder to himself. As I watched him late yesterday with camera in hand he played musical   Unlike the finch, he did not jump off first. His wings are going fast and his feet are still on the perch.
perches without the music. He started out sitting on the far right perch of the feeder. I took pictures of him feeding from that location. When I saw what I had photographed I realized I had gotten a picture of his taking off from the perch.

. . . only to land again . . .

When the pictured cleared from my camera’s screen I thought I would see just an empty feeder perch, but no, he had only hopped – what is the

. . . and then again . . .

proper word when he flew, flitted? – to the neighboring perch. I took a picture of him there. When the camera screen cleared he was on the next perch waiting for me to take his portrait again.

One feeder, three perches with almost no time between them. It took less than one minute for him to move through all three perches – strange
activity unless he was playing musical chairs.

. . . and moving yet again . . .

. . . fluffing while resting . . .

When I looked after taking his picture at the third perch he was gone, but he hadn’t really left. He had only moved to the other feeder that is about four feet away. There he comfortably perched for the next twelve minutes. He didn’t drink, even though the feeder has sweet water in it. He just sat there and pondered the world. He looked around checking for flying insects. If he saw some they didn’t interest him. He seemed to watch for other hummers, but none came so he had no need to chase anyone away. He fluffed his feathers and simply seemed to enjoy the evening air.

. . . watching for . . .

. . . an intruder!

I don’t know how long he would have stayed at his perch there if he hadn’t had a little bigger interference. A House finch decided that she needed a drink of water. It didn’t bother her that the Costa’s was at the feeder she was bigger than he was. So in she came and off he flew.