Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!grebyn!vrdxhq!edm
From: edm@vrdxhq.verdix.com (Ed Matthews)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: News From Northern Virginia
Message-ID: <36065@vrdxhq.verdix.com>
Date: 23 Jul 90 12:05:50 GMT
References: <35577@vrdxhq.verdix.com> <62571@oliveb.atc.olivetti.com>
Reply-To: edm@vrdxhq.UUCP (Ed Matthews)
Organization: Verdix Corporation HQ
Lines: 45

In article <347@spam.ua.oz> wvenable@spam.ua.oz (Bill Venables) writes:
>In article <62571@oliveb.atc.olivetti.com> mjm@oliven.olivetti.com 
>(Michael Mammoser) writes:
>|In article <35577@vrdxhq.verdix.com>, edm@vrdxhq.verdix.com 
>|(Ed Matthews) writes:
>|
>|> From the homefront, the pair of RUBY THROATED HUMMINGBIRDS that frequent my
>|> salvia and coral bells were caught in the act of procreation while on the
>|> wing over the salvia around my patio.  
>|You may want to document this incident carefully. If I'm
>|not mistaken, the currently accepted ornithological theory is that
>|copulating on the wing is unique to the swifts. A well-documented
>|case of its occurrence in another family might be of scientific
>|interest.
>
>..especially since the swift and hummingbird families are usually
>placed in the same order.  You would want to be very sure, though,
>that it was indeed copulation and not something else, like aggression.

I'm not sure how one documents such an act, but I'm satisfied that it was an
act of copulation.  

Here's what I saw:  The male and female, both facing me, were
buzzing over the salvia when the male moved over the female from the left
and slightly behind.  The male was riding lightly on the female, both
beating their wings.  They stayed like this, moving slightly to and fro for
perhaps two to three seconds.  I didn't conclude that this was an act of
aggression.  When these guys want to be aggressive, they go in beak first.
They flew off into the trees afterwards.

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-- 

Ed Matthews                                                edm@verdix.com
Verdix Corporation Headquarters                            (703) 378-7600
Chantilly, Virginia