I spend a lot of time in the yard watching birds, and despite performing that activity nearly every day I never get bored and it’s unusual if I don’t either learn something new or have some question raised about bird behavior. Today’s post involves some hummingbird behavior I’ve witnessed over this season.

When the Rufous hummingbirds arrive in March there is a lot of activity around not only around the hummingbird feeders we put out, but also in and around our watercourse. The hummingbirds relish visiting the watercourse for a bath and/or a drink of water. There are frequently fights over the watercourse as well as the hummingbird feeders and the flowers in the yard. And I take a lot of photos of the hummingbirds in the watercourse.

But for some reason, it’s been probably close to two months since I’ve seen any hummingbird visit the watercourse. (I just checked my photos and the last photo I took of a hummingbird in the watercourse was on 6/7). And they never visit the other bird baths which don’t feature running water. I’ve taken lots of hummingbird photos since early June, but not a single one of a hummingbird in the watercourse.

I’m left with only the options of photographing hummingbirds on perches or hovering around flowers.

 leaves me with two questions:

Why don’t the hummingbirds utilize non-flowing bird baths… and

Why do the hummingbirds quit utilizing the watercourse relatively early in the breeding season?