FeatherEnthusiast
New member
I don't know a great deal about birds, especially birds of the humming variety... I also don't have a good enough camera to get a picture of a hummingbird that won't turn out looking like a grayish blob hovering somewhere near the feeder. Furthermore, I haven't been able to get close enough tot he hummingbirds to get a very good description of them, so please bare with me!
We have two feeders set up on opposite ends of our very long porch. We used to only have one, but then two groups moved in and were battling over control of it, so we tried to smooth things over by adding a second. It worked pretty well for the past 5 years, with two groups of the same type of hummingbird moving in and leaving together peacefully. On the left side of the porch, in our blackberry bush, we have the Blackberry Tribe. On the right side, living in an oak tree, we have the Oak Tribe.
This year, however, only the Blackberry Tribe birds returned. These little guys seem to have green backs, maybe with a little red thrown in on the chest, and the females are brown and cream. They are mildly aggressive. The main thing I notice about them is that they are LOUD. When they fly, it's like a biplane in the distance, or like the world's largest bumble bee! You can hear them up to 30 feet away, giving off a low and LOUD hum.
In contrast, the new Oak Tribe birds are actually pretty quiet. Only when they're about 7 feet away am I able to hear them make any buzzing at all. Furthermore, their coloration is different... This where it gets hard. I haven't had as much time to figure out their colors, as they move fast! They appear to be faster than the Blackberry Tribe, and they are definitely more aggressive! Near their feeder, I found the remains of a green moth. I'm not entirely sure they're responsible, but it fits their behavior patterns. Even though they have their own regularly refilled feeder and flower bunches from which to feed, they are trying to muscle the Blackberry Tribe away from their feeder and their flowers. Before, the Blackberry Tribe and Oak Tribe always coexisted more or less peacefully, as long as they both stayed at their own feeders, in their own territory. The new Oak Tribe doesn't seem content with that!
I can't tell which are the males or females, but here's a description of the most vibrant one I've seen so far... Their heads are very dark, possibly even black. They then have a very white collar around their neck, and their bodies appear to be mostly gray.
They look a little like the caliopes, but after looking through every single hummingbird site I could find, I couldn't find anything that looked enough like them that would actually live in Georgia.
They are definitely not: Rufous, black chinned, magnificent, Allen's, Broad tailed, or Anna's.
They could very well be Ruby Throats, but I don't think I've seen any red on them yet. The Blackberry Tribe are almost definitely broadtailed humming birds.
Well, if anyone could let me know what I'm looking at, I'd really appreciate it!
We have two feeders set up on opposite ends of our very long porch. We used to only have one, but then two groups moved in and were battling over control of it, so we tried to smooth things over by adding a second. It worked pretty well for the past 5 years, with two groups of the same type of hummingbird moving in and leaving together peacefully. On the left side of the porch, in our blackberry bush, we have the Blackberry Tribe. On the right side, living in an oak tree, we have the Oak Tribe.
This year, however, only the Blackberry Tribe birds returned. These little guys seem to have green backs, maybe with a little red thrown in on the chest, and the females are brown and cream. They are mildly aggressive. The main thing I notice about them is that they are LOUD. When they fly, it's like a biplane in the distance, or like the world's largest bumble bee! You can hear them up to 30 feet away, giving off a low and LOUD hum.
In contrast, the new Oak Tribe birds are actually pretty quiet. Only when they're about 7 feet away am I able to hear them make any buzzing at all. Furthermore, their coloration is different... This where it gets hard. I haven't had as much time to figure out their colors, as they move fast! They appear to be faster than the Blackberry Tribe, and they are definitely more aggressive! Near their feeder, I found the remains of a green moth. I'm not entirely sure they're responsible, but it fits their behavior patterns. Even though they have their own regularly refilled feeder and flower bunches from which to feed, they are trying to muscle the Blackberry Tribe away from their feeder and their flowers. Before, the Blackberry Tribe and Oak Tribe always coexisted more or less peacefully, as long as they both stayed at their own feeders, in their own territory. The new Oak Tribe doesn't seem content with that!
I can't tell which are the males or females, but here's a description of the most vibrant one I've seen so far... Their heads are very dark, possibly even black. They then have a very white collar around their neck, and their bodies appear to be mostly gray.
They look a little like the caliopes, but after looking through every single hummingbird site I could find, I couldn't find anything that looked enough like them that would actually live in Georgia.
They are definitely not: Rufous, black chinned, magnificent, Allen's, Broad tailed, or Anna's.
They could very well be Ruby Throats, but I don't think I've seen any red on them yet. The Blackberry Tribe are almost definitely broadtailed humming birds.
Well, if anyone could let me know what I'm looking at, I'd really appreciate it!
