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From: mjm@oliven.olivetti.com (Michael Mammoser)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Hummingbirds...A Question
Message-ID: <41589@oliveb.olivetti.com>
Date: 8 May 89 23:39:54 GMT
References: <1345@ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM>
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In article <1345@ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM>, donnam@thor.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Donna Mitchell) writes:
 > 
 > 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.

	This is most probably the courtship display flight of the Black-
Chinned Hummingbird. The following is from Bent's "Life Histories of
North American Cuckoos, Goatsuckers, Hummingbirds and their Allies".

	"The shuttling of the Black-Chinned Hummingbird, which follows
a path like a narrow figure 8 lying on one side, has often been mentioned
in accounts of the species."

Mike