How To Prevent The Hummingbirds In Your Yard From Fighting

Watching hummingbirds fly around your garden can be a rewarding experience. It's like something straight out of a Disney movie — until those lovely hummingbirds start fighting each other. Despite their tiny size, these birds can be surprisingly feisty, especially when it comes to defending food sources. This is most common during the spring breeding season. Fighting may include dive-bombing, chasing, and loud chirping. Hummingbirds will even use their beaks and talons to duel. While you cannot prevent these birds from fighting altogether, you can reduce confrontation by adding more feeding options and spacing them out.

Minimizing aggression between the hummingbirds in your yard is about understanding why they battle in the first place. These birds are highly territorial and will compete for nectar sources. In the wild, nectar-filled flowers can be scarce, which is why hummingbirds will defend a rich patch of flowers. This natural behavior is the same when it comes to an artificial feeder. The birds will assume it has a limited amount of nectar, even though it could actually feed an entire group. In other words, they think the artificial feeder — that you always refill — is just as limited as a natural flower and will treat it like a valuable resource. To level the playing field, you could set up several feeding stations in your yard. That way, even an aggressive hummingbird won't be able to monopolize all the food.

Hummingbirds will fight at some point, but there are ways to minimize confrontation. The trick is to provide multiple feeding stations and make sure they're out of each other's line of sight. This makes it difficult for one hummingbird to dominate the entire yard. Placing a set of feeders in different corners of your garden will give hummingbirds a chance to feed. Make sure the feeding zones are at least 15 feet apart or separated with visual barriers like shrubs or garden décor. Offer natural sources of nectar, too. Nectar-rich plants like bee balm and trumpet honeysuckle attract hummingbirds to your yard and offer diverse feeding sources, so the birds will be less dependent on artificial feeders. Meanwhile, make sure you refill the feeders at the right time. A nearly empty feeder can prompt hummingbirds to compete over what's left.

Height is another detail to consider. You'll want the feeders to be 4 to 6 feet high to mimic the birds' natural behavior of hovering over flowers. It also keeps them safe from cats and other land predators. Be sure the feeders are shaded, too, as this prevents nectar from spoiling under the sun. You could even place them near small trees so hummingbirds can have a place to perch. If you notice that one feeding station is a hotspot, change its location or add an extra feeder nearby to redirect the birds' attention. With the right setup, you could even encourage hummingbirds to nest in your yard.