A brief foray online found numerous instances of hummers falling victims to these large carnivorous insects. Numbers of Ruby-throated Hummingbird in the region tend to fluctuate each year, but people should usually see a spike in their numbers as the hummingbirds end summer nesting and start migrating south again.ĭocumented evidence exists to identify large praying mantises as predators on ruby-throated hummingbirds.While Gene’s mantis may not be an immediate threat to hummingbirds visiting his yard in Haysi, does that mean we can be complacent when these large insects share our yards and gardens with hummingbirds? Now I can expel my breath as he no longer an avian threat.” “He is now clinging to the bottom (of the feeder) waiting for an insect. “It has been four hours and he has lowered his goal,” Gene wrote of the patient mantis. So far, the stalking has only resulted in “several near misses,” but Gene declared that he is ready to pounce in case the mantis gets lucky. “The mantis follows and stalks the hummingbirds all the way around 360 degrees.” “A praying mantis is using our feeder as his own private hunting preserve,” Gene continued in his email. He certainly hooked my attention with that introduction. “After all, my wife, Judy, was more excited today than the day we married in Chicago 54 years ago.” “I just had to share this picture with you,” Gene wrote. Gene told me of his excitement upon capturing the large insect’s behavior in a photograph. This photo was shared by Gene Counts, who described how the mantis stalked hummingbirds that came to his feeder.Gene, who lives in Haysi, Virginia, sent me a photograph and a short note about a praying mantis that stalks hummingbirds as they visit his feeders for a sip of sugar water. I don’t recall anyone taking a photo of the hummingbird’s tragic demise.Īn email from Gene Counts reminded me of the tale of the tanager and the hummingbird. All of this took place before a crowd of birders who observed the incident through their binoculars. The tanager seized the hummingbird in its bill and, for good measure and to “tenderize” its prey, beat the hummingbird against the side of a branch. If so, it was a case of curiosity kills the cat or, in this case, the hummingbird. In the details I recall of the story about the predatory tanager, the hummingbird kept flying close to the tanager as if attracted to the red plumage. Ruby-throated hummingbirds are attracted to the color red. Male scarlet tanagers look striking in their red and black plumage. Memory being what it is, I am no longer sure if that account was corroborated or one of those urban legends of birding.Ī few pertinent facts should be considered. Many years ago I read an account of a scarlet tanager making a snack of a ruby-throated hummingbird.
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