It is fun to watch the aerial mock combat of male hummingbirds."Mock" combat, dr. bill? Nothing mock about it. Hummingbirds are cutthroats.* see Smithsonian Magazine,
http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues00/sep00/hummingbirds.html:
[Title]
So Tiny, So Sweet...So MEAN[subtitle]
If hummingbirds were as big as ravens, it probably wouldn't be safe to go for a walk in the woods
Their size makes them cute — and also dictates their fretful, bickering, high-rev way of life. ... this fearless opportunist is a slave to its raging metabolism.
It's the equivalent of a 180-pound human having to scrounge up 204,300 calories a day, or about 171 pounds of hamburger. ... It's enough to give even a very pretty little bird the personality of a junkyard dog. A scientific paper about the rufous hummingbird includes this endearing notation: "SOCIAL BEHAVIOR: None. Individual survival seems only concern."-----------------
*ROFL! The good doctor dislikes boars, border collies, and hippos, but loves hummingbirds!
