Hummingbird Drama

Its all happening in your backyard!

I’ve been reading Amy Tan’s latest book The Backyard Bird Chronicles, a beautiful collection of her journal entries and her own breathtaking drawings of the birds she has observed over many years in the backyard she has curated for them. Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, and the Valley of Amazement, to name just a few, says that creating this journal was very different than writing a novel. In her words “Creating The Backyard Bird Chronicles was pure fun, spontaneous, a bit of a mess, come what may.”

I think this is a marvelous testament to living a creative life. By working on something entirely different, a writer taps into a wealth of creativity that will spill over into future works. Reading her book has inspired me to take a look at my own backyard birds.

I’m not a bird expert, but armed with my National Geographic Field Guide to Birds of the Western North America, I did my best to try to identify the actors in the drama that played out in my backyard last week. (Also my pictures aren’t great…the hummers are elusive subjects, hardly ever sitting still , but forgive me and feel free to correct me if my identifications are wrong.)

The Drama Begins

A young female hummingbird, perhaps a Costa’s, has been guarding her territory around our saguaro-shaped feeder. She’s made a good choice. The feeder is near a series of dense, high shrubbery in a corner of our yard that offers protection and possibly a nesting site. When our daughter was visiting one spring, she saw a hummingbird nest there. The female hummer sits on the shepherd’s crook and surveys her surroundings, chasing after any who dare enter her domain. I notice the feeder looks empty. When I take if off the hook, she zooms past with a zing resembling a tiny light saber sound, then circles back and stares at me face to face.

“Hey, its about time you refilled that. And make it snappy, I haven’t got all day, she seems to say.” Off to the kitchen I go, where I’ve prepared a fresh batch of nectar, one part sugar dissolved in four parts water. When I return, she circles where the feeder should be, dashes off while I hang it back on the hook, then resumes her guard duty. This time she sits in the neighbor’s grapefruit tree where she can see the saguaro feeder and the secondary feeder around the corner, outside my office window.

The Plot Thickens

By now, I’ve returned to working at my computer. Purple Floyd comes to visit the feeder just outside my window. He’s close enough that I can get a good look at him. I’m pretty sure he is a Costa’s. His bright purple head is iridescent in the morning sun and he has a very distinctive white cheek. He is a regular at my office feeder. I named him Purple Floyd because of his purple cap, and when he bends his head to drink, a few feathers stick up in back making him look like a rock star.

But Wait…!!!

The female has spotted Floyd and ambushes him in a surprise attack! For several minutes they zig and zag around my garden. She is relentless, and in the end, chases the poor guy away. Zooming back to the grapefruit tree, she doesn’t even stop to drink at the feeder she just conquered. For now, she’s content to have established her dominance.

Later, Purple Floyd returns to the feeder, but he doesn’t perch on it. Instead, he hovers, takes a few quick sips, and takes off. He wants to avoid another confrontation. For now anyway, the garden returns to its normal state of equilibrium and I return to work, thankful that I’ve had such drama added to my mundane morning.

Cameo Appearance

Ha! Look who showed up in the garden just as I was finishing this post. I guess this guy or girl will have to wait for his/her own story. Beep, beep! Is there a coyote in the neighborhood?