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jim_y

Females not nesting?

jim_y
17 years ago

I have more hummers this year than ever before. There are a dozen or more RTs that have been hanging around my yard the whole season that are mostly female. Since the young have taken flight about a month ago, the females have taken over the half-dozen feeders that I have located around my house. These were formerly owned by resident males. They have also taken over the nearby perches overlooking the feeders and now the males have to slip in to feed. There is a great deal of territorial fighting going on with the females dominating. I saw several instances of male breeding displays in the spring but only fighting is occuring now. My question is why are they not nesting again? Prior to this year, they would be on the nest again for the second brood of the season. The females usually do not leave this area until the first or second week of October, plenty of time to raise another brood. There could be some nesting behavior that I haven't picked up on but for the most part, there are a lot of females who only seem to be interested in possessing the feeders. To make a long story short, I am happy to have more hummers this year, but the breeding behavior doesn't seem to be normal.

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