Hummingbird Strife

This was something new for Becky and me. We've had hummingbirds in our gardens for many years but yesterday was the first time we have seen two hummingbirds fighting over some flowers. One of them was chasing the other away and then went back to feeding in the flower. They were mostly after the beebalm plants. This happened several times while we were sitting in our backyard chairs watching the drama. The birds were also squawking too. We both have not remembered ever hearing hummingbirds vocalizing. About an hour later we saw the action going on again and the one bird kept chasing the other away.

This afternoon we were sitting in the backyard relaxing and we saw the hummingbirds fighting again. This was the third time in two days. Last night at our neighborhood Wine on Wednesday gathering in our backyard I brought up the fighting hummingbirds to several people and nobody had ever seen that kind of activity in their own gardens. They had also not heard the sounds of the hummingbirds. 

Later on I looked up hummingbird fighting on the Internet and of course I found lots of information on what I learned was the highly aggressive and territorial behavior of hummingbirds. I was surprised. Apparently this behavior happens more often during droughts and times of limited access to plants and flowers. We just had never seen this happen before in our Buffalo gardens.

Fighting hummingbirds video from NPR