Splish, Splash, Taking a Bath. A Tale of Two Hummingbirds at My Garden Fountain.

Zooming in with my new Nikon 100–400mm (ƒ4–5.6) VR S lens

The screeching and dive-bombing go on all day long. “Big Red,” the dominant male Allen’s Hummingbird spends most of his time darting back and forth from his perch in the nearby orange tree to the feeder and back again to the tree, where he can keep an eye on the fountain, which he clearly believes is his, and his alone.

I happened to be at my kitchen sink when I saw a flurry of activity at the fountain. So, I grabbed my Nikon z7II and my new Nikon 100–400mm lens (which I got for Christmas) and crept out into the garden. It was a bit overcast, so I wasn’t sure how well their chins would shimmer, but it was really fun to be able to “freeze-frame” the action at the fountain. The hummingbirds normally move so fast that it’s hard to see the details.

You can tell the difference between the “big boys” and the females and juvenile males by the amount of red feathers adorning their chins and chests. Big Red is clearly adorned in his full plumage. If you look closely, you can see that he looks like he is wearing a cape, that drapes over his shoulders, of iridescent scales.

But the young male in the next photo is just beginning to get his “stubble.”

The girls often have a red dot or two on their chins. And the males begin to get more and more of those dots, until they all fill in when they reach adulthood.

Who knows, this juvenile might be the next Big Red one day? But, for the moment, he has to satisfy himself with sneaking in while Big Red takes to the skies in pursuit of another competitor.

Aren’t his little “pantaloons” adorable?

After looking around a bit to be certain that Big Red was nowhere in sight, he relaxed.

The little one clearly thought he was safe for a few moments and took a little “breather” on the side of the fountain.

But hummingbirds cannot resist the lure of the water. They take such great delight in splashing and playing and tossing water droplets into the air.

They’re also always on high alert, though, waiting for the impending arrival of the dominant male.

And, sure enough, the little guy has been spotted.

Big Red swoops in with a clicking, screeching ferocity, intended to strike fear into the other birds’ hearts.

But he sure is gorgeous, isn’t he? At about 2–4 grams and only 3.5 inches long, he is tiny but mighty.

Those shimmering feathers look very different in the shadows than they do in the sunshine. If the birds are just facing in a different direction (like in the following photo), those chin feathers don’t look as red. In the previous photo, Big Red is facing into the light and glowing like a beacon of brightness. In the next one though, his throat looks much darker.

Hummingbirds owe their shimmer not to pigmentation, but to tiny air pockets in their feathers.

This iridescence is similar to what gives soap bubbles, oil slicks, and some seashells their rainbow glow and it is due to the presence of structures called melanosomes, which are so tiny that 100 million of them can fit on a single hummingbird feather.

A flock of hummingbirds is known as a glittering, a shimmer, a bouquet, a hover, or a tune — all very fitting names for a group of these glimmery, chatty, little birds.

Interestingly, hummingbirds have no sense of smell. But they are attracted to red and orange, so planting things like salvia or honeysuckle near their feeders helps to attract them.

To drink their sugar water or flower nectar, they move their tiny tongues in and out as fast as thirteen times a second. They can eat up to twice their body weight in a day.

Please never use red dye in their food. It can cause throat cancer. Also, never use organic sugar, which is processed with molasses (which they cannot tolerate), when making their nectar. A simple solution of sugar to water in a 1:4 proportion is best.

Big Red greatly enjoyed his bath before darting off again after another hummer. And I greatly enjoyed watching him.

But stay tuned for Part II of this story, because (as you can see in the following photo) a whole other drama was playing out on the opposite side of the fountain, where Big Red could not see what was happening.

Their territories are not that big and another male, who resides in the camelia bush on the other side of the garden, has claimed the left-hand side of the fountain to be his domain. So, the story continues….

All photos were taken on a Nikon z7II and the newly-released Nikon 100–400mm (ƒ4–5.6) VR S lens.

Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).

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Photos and story ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.

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