OK, so maybe they're not "jerks" but they are extremely territorial!
I spent about 20 minutes watching this alpha (pretty sure it's a male rufous) patrol a clearing over a stream in my local wildlife reserve. There were no flowering plants, he just didn't want any other hummingbirds on HIS branches and actively ran them off anytime they got close.
I trained my camera on his 3 most common perches and waited...
Nice shots!
Rufuses are aggressive and chase away other hummingbirds in the area. Last September a couple showed up at the feeder in my backyard. They chased away the resident Anna’s hummingbirds and kind of took over the feeder. The rufuses are migratory so they’ll move on. Once they moved on, my resident Anna’s hummingbirds returned.
My guess is they’re probably headed north toward there summer home that can as far north as Alaska (per Google).
