When it was approximately opposite the hummingbird, it suddenly swooped up over the bushes and seized the Anna's. The hawk dashed along about one foot above the ground, apparently using the brush as a screen. A male Sharp-shinned hawk flew rapidly toward the hummingbird. Hans Peeters of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley observed a male Anna's "perched on a dead branch…preening. The flycatcher then flew with its prey out of my vision to a distant tree." Repeatedly, the flycatcher knocked the hummingbird against the branch with violent side to side motions of its head. The Rufous dangled from the flycatcher's beak. The flycatcher quickly picked up the stunned hummingbird in its beak by one wing and flew to a branch overhanging the feeder. The flycatcher extended its wings just prior to midair contact with the hovering hummingbird, and knocked the small bird to the ground. "The flycatcher swooped down from a perch it had used for several days near the feeder. It then flew to a nearby branch and held the hummingbird down with its feet and pecked at it violently until feathers flew from it…When I picked the little bird up, it was dead."Īt Cave Creek, near Portal, Arizona, a Brown-crested flycatcher was seen preying on a male Rufous hummingbird at a feeder. The oriole turned, pounced, and caught the hummingbird in its beak. The "male hummingbird hovered in front of a blossom within about one-third meter of the male oriole. One report from New Brunswick, Canada involved a male Baltimore oriole preying upon a male Ruby-throated hummingbird. Orioles, flycatchers, falcons, and small hawks (such as the Sharp-shinned hawk) are the most adept predators of hummingbirds. This unique approach to hunting is well suited to the small hawk, as hummingbirds are such agile and superior fliers that snatching them in the air would be almost impossible. These tiny hawks capture perched Costa Rican hummingbirds within the hummer's territory by sudden attacks, as opposed to aerial pursuit which is the more common method employed by most hawks. But in Costa Rica, there is one - a tiny hawk of the rain forest (Accipiter superciliosus fontanieri). there are no natural predators who specialize in hummingbirds. Very few of us have ever encountered a situation in nature that was life threatening to hummingbirds, but each and every day of their lives hummingbirds must avoid a host of potential dangers. We are all familiar with the saying "survival of the fittest," but we seldom think that hummingbirds have predators and other dangers that they must face. We marvel at their magnificent iridescent coloration, their unique flying abilities, their courtship and mating displays, the female's excellent parenting skills, and their curiosity and fearlessness of humans. Those of us who love hummingbirds do so for many reasons. About our Small Batch Bird Foods by WBS.
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