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I have a lot of hummingbirds in my yard and recently I keep hearing a loud chirp.
Because there are other birds around I wasn't sure which bird was
making the sound.
It wasn't until I was able to stand quietly in the yard and watch a hummingbird swoop down by a female and then rapidly fly upwards
(in a large "U" pattern) and make that sound did I learn it was the
hummingbird mating call.
Below is what I learned -
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/1829/hummingbird-sings-with-its-tail-feathers
Oh I can't wait til late-April/early-May when the hummingbirds return to our yard.
I love watching them. We recently learned about the u-pattern flight of the mating dance. And the first time I heard them tweet, I was soooo excited. We don't get too many in our yard, but usually 2 or 3 females and at least 1 male. We're getting used to the "pattern" of their visits. Seems the male comes a lot, then the female starts coming. And then we'll see another female or two. It seems the females don't like other females coming into their territory...we see them chase each other off. Then towards the end of the season, the male starts coming again.
I've walked around our property many times trying to spot a nest but never have.
My neighbor has two large ficus trees in pots on either side of her front door. The entry way gets a lot of traffic. What was in one of the ficus trees right at perfect eye level - but a nest. It was the dearest thing you ever want to see. She had her babies there and the traffic never bothered her one bit.
I thought it was interesting that they make this chirping noise with their tails. They can make the sound vocally - but it isn't loud enough so they use their tails.
The hummingbirds are amazing creatures, aren't they?!?!
There aren't many flowers in bloom yet in California. We have a feeder that holds about four cups of sugar water. It doesn't even last a week.
And right at dusk it is a traffic jam around it as they get their final sips
in before it is bedtime.
I have noticed that they don't seem to be too territorial at that time. It is almost as they all know these last sips are important.
However during the day it is constant dive bombing as one protects the feeder from the others.
The feeder hangs right out my kitchen window and I confess I have spent a lot of time just standing there watching them.
I clicked on the link and at the bottom of the page is a video but I clicked on the video and didn't hear anything (yes, I checked my connections...)
Oh my gosh, I wish I was there to see it. :( Not this year, I'm afraid.
Can you take some pictures for us?
Slick, in the third paragraph of the article it says "sound here". Click on that and you should be able to hear it.
I could, but it didn't come up right away.......but once it did I had a terrible time getting it turned off -- but then you know how computer challenged I am!!:D:D:D
I heard it now. So now you have fornication going on in your back yard???? That's L-eh for ya!!! :D:D
We have a 2-sides all windows back porch that we use from April-Oct. I hang several feeders and also try to plant or put out hanging potted plants that attract the hummingbirds. We can see activity at almost any time of day, but it does seem evening is really a busy time. I hook my camera up with the a/c power and put it on a tri-pod so I can snap pictures.<br><br>http://patch57.homestead.com/August12_051.jpg
http://patch57.homestead.com/August18and29_009.jpg