Take a listen to the hummer's wings at this link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's audio of the ruby-throated hummingbird and you'll see what I mean by the sound of mini airplanes. Sometimes it sounds like mini airplanes buzzing by, as their wings dart from feeder to feeder. Observations from scientists and birders indicate that its enemies come in many forms, from snakes in Central Mexico that sneak up on unsuspecting hummers, to preying mantises that seize them at nectar feeders. (Megan Ralph/Dryad Ranch) They blend in with their leafy. It seems the 'city' hummers I have like to dive bomb at each other, keeping one from another on each feeder very jealously (even though I have four feeders plus plantings throughout my garden). To you, a hummingbird may seem like a prized work of art but to some animals, it’s just a sweet little treat. A new study published in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology has found 147 cases of praying mantises killing and eating small birds. The Asian giant hornet is the best-known species of large hornet, and it is. Larger mantises can escape the webs, and the larger the mantis, the more likely it is to actually be a predator to the spiders itself 5. Many bird species are known to dine on insects, but for a dozen species of praying mantises, birds aren’t the predators they’re the prey. Spiders are major predators of praying mantis, and spiders capture them in webs as long as they are smaller in size. I don't get flocks of them as some folks do, where they all feed harmoniously together. A praying mantis (Tenodera sinensis) eating a ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) in Illinois. Can you imagine the energy these little creatures expend on a daily basis? They never cease to inspire and amaze me, given their size. A hummingbird is a super-sized meal for a praying mantis, but hummingbirds are not off the menu when a mantis is experiencing extreme hunger. Snakes and lizards hide near a bush or a house. The most common victim is the ruby-throated hummingbird, that on average weigh less than 4 grams, or 0.11 ounces. Some dangerous predators lie in wait for the hummingbird. Again, hummingbirds are aggressive and have been known to fend off large hawks and other birds from their territories. I have only seen photos of their nests, and they are about the size of a quarter, as seen in this link: It is said the best way to detect the nest is to let the female direct you to it, but the nest can be nearly a mile away from the food sources. Big birds such as hawks, owls, crows, roadrunners, orioles, grackles, gulls, and herons can be hummingbird predators. I have yet to spot a hummingbird nest in my yard, which would be my own personal hummingbird garden nirvana.
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