Have you ever watched 2 or 3 hummingbirds fight over one feeder, when the feeder has 5 holes for drinking? Will they ever learn to share? I think I could put 20 feeders in my yard and they would still fight over the one they like best.
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Tokey's right...survival of the fittest. I took mine down because there was always this one bully hummingbird that chased all the others away....greedy little bastard. And my bird feeders may as well be called squirrel feeders...filthy little rodent bitches.
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They are instinctively territorial. They have to in order to survive in the wild. They are small birds, so that they have large surface area to body ratio, and as a result lose body heat quickly to the environment. Many go through nightly torpor, by lowering their body temperature, in order to stay alive. During the day, they have to feed about once every 15 minutes or so. Therefore they have to aggressively guard their territories against other hummers or they may starve to death. Hummers have no concept of "sharing" and they do not recognize a feeder as an inexhaustible food supply that can be shared. Besides, it is not inexhaustible. A forgetful person may not refill the feeder often enough and they do run dry. Besides, they are no different than humans. We don't put our refrigerators or money boxes outside our doors and share it with anybody who comes by the neighborhood. Instead we keep them inside our castles and guard them with doors and locks, perhaps even weapons against raiders. Even our guests are not allowed to empty the contents of our safes or even our refrigerators, correct? Therefore hummers are no more selfish than us humans.
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Competition honey, survival of the fittest.
My genes are better than yours because I can bully you away from the food source, making my offspring much more likely to survive than yours.
Nature can be a b*tch...
((((((India))))))
I miss the humming birds. With feeders in the city all I get are wasps...
My genes are better than yours because I can bully you away from the food source, making my offspring much more likely to survive than yours.
Nature can be a b*tch...
((((((India))))))
I miss the humming birds. With feeders in the city all I get are wasps...
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Because they are mean greedy little boogers.