134/365 Fat Fred and the struggle to stay on top

We’ve named a hummingbird that has returned to our feeder for several years in a row.

His name? Fat Fred.

We know it’s the same bird every year because he zooms around the corner and perches on the hanger from which the feeder is suspended – as he’s doing here:Fred comes back to this hook in the spring even before we’ve hung the feeder, like he knows it’s supposed to be there. So we’ve realized he’s not a new bird who’s just stumbled upon it.

He sits there, scrunches down into his legs and puffs up – so he looks like a little butterball, if you can call a hummingbird a butterball.

And he defends that feeder like it’s his only motivation on Earth. Any other hummingbirds who come zooming up for a drink themselves are fiercely dive-bombed and screeched away. Then he returns to his perch, fluffs himself up again, and waits for the next attempt.

Ah, the politics of being a hummingbird. Must be a rough life.

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/125s, f/5.6 at ISO 100 in direct sunlight at about 7:30 p.m.