Rufio

There is a war going on on the back porch. There a high pitched screeching sounds, like missiles flying by, and should you venture outside you run the risk of being skewered by a hummingbird beak, or at least being whacked upside the head by one hummer chasing another.

A rufous hummingbird, one of the smaller varieties of hummers, has taken over one of the three feeders. (I apologize for the quality of the photo, but it is the best my point-and-shoot camera can do.) He is a rotund little fellow, he does eat from the feeder every now and then, but most of the time he just sits on the hanger and screams at anything else that happens to fly by. He does not even tolerate a bee in his presence. If anyone does violate his no-fly zone, he leaves his perch at high speed and turns on his afterburners in full pursuit. Once the intruder has been chased off he returns to his perch and screeches some more.

The hummers on the other feeders seem unperturbed. They just lean back a bit to let him go by and then go back to loading up.