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Foiling a Bully Hummingbird

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If you have a hummingbird feeder, you will get an adult male who acts as though the feeder is his sole province. He will fight all other birds that attempt to visit the feeder, often crashing into them with a smack to drive them off. Many experts used to recommend placing other feeders around your yard, out of sight of your bully male. However, that this only serves to permit other bullies to set up their "turfs" in these locations.

Current conventional wisdom is to group all of your feeders in a tight clump. In late summer, when adults and the young birds from the first brood are all trying to visit the feeders, territorial male hummers will get tired and overwhelmed. Soon they will just give up and let everyone feed in peace.

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