Hummingbird Wars in the Cold

The new year has greeted Phoenix with chilly overnight temperatures that seem to make my backyard nectar feeder even more important to my neighborhood's hummingbirds. As usual, a male Anna's has established control over his territory and is chasing other hungry hummers away. Nevertheless, with persistence and guile, other birds are getting their own sips in at the feeder even if only for a brief moment.

At dusk, interestingly, the male's defenses must either be overwhelmed or they just call it a night as I've seen up to five or six birds at one time filling the eight spaces at the feeder. It's the only time I see a mix of males, females and juveniles in such close proximity.

While the Anna's hummingbird is the dominant species in my area of Phoenix, the Costa's has become a regular visitor to my yard during the winter. This variety of the bird probably breeds further west and north along the Colorado River and in southern California during warmer months, but appears to like to winter in this area of the Sonoran Desert.

At least one male in particular is making regular and furtive stops at the nectar feeder and has let me approach him for relatively close views on several occasions. Less than two thirds the size of the Anna's, the Costa's has a gorget that is proportionally bigger and is more purple versus red. But since these birds flash their colors like gems we can also say that it's amethyst rather than magenta.

But it's the Costa's pluck that especially impresses me as this smaller David penetrates the defenses that the bigger Anna's or Goliath maintains around the yard's perimeter during daylight. Maybe it's the cold along with the dearth of blooms and insects that account for the Costa's and the other lucky hummingbirds' desperate bravery. For the moment, I can measure and celebrate these underdogs' success through both the quality of the photographs I capture and the increasing frequency I replenish their sugar water.