Bouncing Bird

This is a male rufous hummingbird and we have several that visit. They are aggressive and bold, and they try to drive off any other hummingbirds at our feeder. There is a lot of zooming and diving and fast action stuntwork in the air around the feeder as they defend it.

Not my picture of course

We hang the feeder on the patio and the rufous hummers spend a lot of time sitting in the vine on the fence across from the patio, in order to monitor the feeder. Just to make sure no one else gets to it.

In front of the vine covered fence I have a decoration hanging on a shepherd's crook. Just something to look at, it's a plastic heart shaped thing with a glass marble. I don't know why I got it, but there it is.

The other morning as I had my coffee sitting on the patio, I kept seeing a red throated rufous hummingbird fly over to the heart and perch on top of it.

The thing hangs from a stretchy coil, and the hummingbird, who weighs all of nothing, was making the heart bounce a little. 

As I watched, the tiny bird flew up about a foot, then back down to the heart decoration where he bounced up and down rhythmically. Then he did it again, flying up just a foot over the shepherd's crook, then back down to perch on the heart where he bobbed up and down. 

Again and again.

At first I thought he was nervously flitting up and down, agitated by some threat to his feeder. But it became clear after a dozen repetitions that he was, well . . . playing. He was enjoying a good bounce.

It became funnier and funnier. Each time he perched on the heart he looked right at me. Bold. Daring me to watch him perform his little act. Lookit me. He even flew over to me and buzzed my head a couple times. 

Hummingbirds are one of the few birds that acknowledge and interact with humans. And I acknowledged him, applauding at his antics and laughing to see this little creature amuse himself bouncing up and down. 

Eventually he flew off to get on with his daily chores of feeding, chasing and resting and I went inside to do the same, minus the chasing. And I smiled all day thinking about our shared morning of play time.