Romance Scam! A Hummingbird Falls For Fake Flowers & A Fake Friend!

This little bird visited today and stayed for a few photo-ops. Funnily enough, first he was fooled by some fake flowers in a basket. Then fooled again over a metal hummingbird on a trellis above the basket. He let me get quite close to him, but I was afraid he might fly into the living room if I opened the sliding door too wide, so this was the only angle I could get. I was taking product pictures when he stopped by, and happened to see him fly onto the balcony. I had a 50mm fixed lens on the camera. Too bad it wasn’t a macro lens. But with hummingbirds, you don’t usually have much time to change a lens.

He was just three feet away from where I was standing, and did not fly away when I quietly slid the door open. He kept looking up at the metal bird, and opening and closing his pointed little beak, like he was trying to talk to it. He might have been cold too, or maybe it is a mating thing, because he kept preening and puffing out his feathers as well. He stayed much longer than hummingbirds usually do. I wondered if he was hiding out to avoid being attacked by the crows. I don’t recall ever seeing hummingbirds in December on the west coast. Perhaps this little birdie came to give a wee parable or message for the New Year. There is potential within  all of nature – to be deceived. The photo art is a pop art filter cropped from the original.

I just read that the only breed remaining here for the entire winter is called the Anna hummingbird. Apparently there are record numbers of them freezing and injured right now. No wonder this little one was hanging around longer, and maybe not thinking too clearly.

I also read about people warming feeders this time of year, and/or trying to find ways to keep them from freezing. In a previous post I explained why I do not believe in feeding any wildlife, including birds. If the Anna hummingbird routinely sticks around for the winter, they must have the capacity to survive, at least a percentage of them must. This bird did fly away without appearing to be injured. I hope he or she is doing okay.