[Tweeters] Male Anna's mortality interaction

[Steve Giles]

Hello all,

This morning I witnessed a male Anna's hummingbird impaling another male Anna's with its beak until it died.

At about 9 AM I looked out at our feeders and on one of them I saw what looked like an Anna's perched on top of something dark and horizontal in the channel of the feeder. The perched bird seemed to be stabbing whatever it was on with its bill. I looked through my bins and saw that it was another hummingbird laying on the feeder being repeatedly stabbed by the bird on top of it. Next I slowly walked out to the feeder and got to within 18 inches of the activity and had close  views of one male Anna's vigorously impaling another around the head and throat. The attacker was so consumed by its efforts that it only spooked when I got within a foot of the scene. This all happened in about fifteen minutes. Finally the prone bird tumbled off the feeder onto the ground. I later collected it and will take it to the Burke Museum.

Has anyone else seen Anna's aggressive behavior rise to this deadly level?

Steve Giles

Camano Island



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