Our Guard Bird

When we moved into our new house we received a super cool housewarming gift...a bird feeder. Normally I would not be so excited about a bird feeder, but one backyard away is a huge bird preserve. I finally picked up my camera to capture some of our new friends.

This little guy and many of his kind come around every day. I love him because he has a mohawk, which these days the big boys are begging to have as well, but that's not quite as cute on them as it is on this little bird.

Then there's this guy. I love him because of his coloring.

But the ones I never get tired of seeing and everyone announces when they visit are these guys...
Well recently this one has taken to standing guard over the feeder. Yes, he sits at the top!

At first I thought it was super cute. Then I realized what he is doing. He's guarding the feeder. Yup. Another hummingbird comes to feed and he swoops down to chase it away...every single time! One day he was quite busy as he sat there most of the day. When evening rolled around he took off but sure enough he was back the next morning. Nothing deters him! Not even a swift breeze.

In my documenting I managed to catch this...

Yes!!! That's his TONGUE! It's like he's giving everyone the finger. :)

And so he sits. Many days, for many hours. He's the only little one that will sit up there. Cardinals, and other friends come by but he will not let the other hummingbirds near his feeder. Unless of course the birds find that he's not guarding it...