Hummingbird love, and Spring, are in the air

By Jane Greiner
Sun contributor
What a pleasure it is to have the hummingbirds back.
Yesterday I looked up from my book to see a female hummingbird sitting on the feeder. A second one, presumably male, approached the feeder and flew back and forth in front of her in a short horizontal “shuttle pattern.” Back and forth he went, straight left for two feet, straight right two feet, back and forth, back and forth, always facing her. After about 20 zips left and right, he landed on the feeder not far from her. As he did so I thought I saw a flash of ruby red color buried in his chest feathers.

Through all this the female did not budge.
He puffed himself up, ruffled his head feathers, and looked left and right, left and right, snapping his head and long beak back and forth repeatedly.
She just rested there and occasionally took a sip from the feeder.
He sat and puffed and shook his head and scratched himself with his feet and looked at her and puffed himself up and preened himself a bit and scratched under his wing again with his foot.
She still seemed unimpressed.
He stayed puffed up, continued wagging his head and from time to time stopped and looked at her. The puffing, wagging and looking went on for so long there was plenty of time for me to get the camera and take a bunch of pictures.
After they were gone, I thought about what it all meant. The puffed-up bird could have been a juvenile hummingbird or one fresh from the bird bath. But really, with all the puffing up, scratching, and posturing, I had to think that what I had seen was a hummingbird mating ritual. Yes, Spring is in the air!