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From: donnam@thor.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Donna Mitchell)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Hummingbirds...A Question
Message-ID: <1345@ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM>
Date: 5 May 89 19:29:00 GMT
Sender: news@ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM
Reply-To: donnam@thor.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Donna Mitchell)
Distribution: na
Organization: NCR Corporation, Rancho Bernardo
Lines: 19


I have lot of hummingbirds right now.  There are several different
kinds.  Some are Black throated.  I hope I got the name right, I looked
it up and now can't 100% remember.  They have what looks like a black
head, but shines a bluish-purple.  Anyway, the question:

One of these hummers makes a strange noise and flies in a horizontal
figure eight.  The figure eight is about 2 feet wide and a couple of
inches height.  What is he doing?  Is is some new mating flight?  I
have never seen this before, and it seems only one is doing it.  It
lasts for about a minute, maybe less.  I've seen him do it near the
feeders (and near other hummers) and out by himself.  He doesn't do
it often, once a day probably.  I'm always surprised to see him, that
it is hard to really analyze it.

Any ideas out there?

Donna
donnam@palomar.SanDiego.NCR.COM