Ever since we put up hummingbird feeders to supplement our fountain, we’ve been inundated with hummingbirds. Dozens of birds at once. Clouds of hummers buzz around our heads, startling up from their perches on the feeders as soon as head out the front door. According to some calculations Marcella did with an online calculator, we are probably feeding 200 birds a day. You have to math the math: x quarts of nectar divided by x hours of daylight divided by a theoretical maximum of 4 feedings per individual bird per hour (they can only empty their crops so fast).
The vast, vast majority of the birds here are our resident Anna’s Hummingbird. I see dozens at a time when I venture outside. But mixed among them are the local rarities: a Black-chinned here and there, and, for the past couple of weeks, several Rufous Hummingbirds. We’ve had both male and female RUHU this August, and I’ve frequently seen more than one at a time. Today I finally managed to capture an image of two of them at the same feeder. So it’s time to put up a little gallery of Rufous Hummingbird photos:
