I tend to Republican, and I have more than one feeder (Food consumption is about the same – so with two feeders, you refill half as often with twice as much). I place them out of sight of each other so that one hummingbird can’t dominate both easily. A hummingbird can only see one or the other unless they get far away (too far to see both easily).
Interesting note; it is only the males that fight over the feeders – the females don’t, though a male may chase a female away that is not ‘his’ female.
The hummingbird’s action is predicated on a perceived scarcity of a resource, which in the case of a feeder is really not scarce. No flower or bed of flowers can hold as much ‘nectar’ as a bird feeder. The perceived scarcity can be understood why you understand the birds metabolism. It is so high that they actually have to hibernate when sleeping (tupor). They eat to live, and they must eat constantly else they die. Here’s one for scaredy re:exercise.. hummingbirds can breath as fast as 250 breaths/minute and heart rate can reach 1250/min – this may even occur at ‘rest’. In ‘hibernation’ or tupor – heart rate can drop to 50/min.
Interesting anecdote: When my mother first moved to CA from back east, she was buzzed by a hummingbird and thought it was a very large bumble bee. She wanted to move back immediately because she was not going to raise kids where bees are that large.
