Starthroat

We have nine hummingbird feeders in our yard here in Los Altos de Cerro Azul. One Rufous-tailed Hummingbird thinks he owns all of them. If we keep adding more feeders perhaps there will eventually be so many he can't guard them all.

For the past week or so a Long-billed Starthroat has been making very fast sallies through the yard, occasionally getting enough time to take a drink. We saw one in the yard well over a month ago and a few times since, but the visits were very irregular and our looks at it were never long enough. Two days ago I noticed one of the birds (we think there may be two!) visit at 1 pm; yesterday one came at 1:03 pm. Today I set up the Flip HD camera and let it roll. After about 15 minutes I saw a fast object fly in and the Rufous-tailed chase it off. My hopes were high as I fast-forwarded through the footage. Sure enough; a Long-billed Starthroat had come in to take a drink, but got chased off. The video shows the action at normal speed and then slowed down.

Our birding pals up here, Bill and Claudia Ahrens, added Long-billed Starthroat to their yard list just yesterday.