...for all hummer watchers south of me here in Ontario.

A little background first:

We had noticed this female about a month ago. She looked like she had a piece of a flower stamen or something hanging out of her beak, hanging to the lower left. After seeing her a day later, with the same 'thing' appearing to be sticking out of the corner of her mouth, I made the deduction, after getting a good look at her while she was nectaring the B&B just outside the window, that it was not a piece of flower hanging from her beak, but that her upper beak (don't know the proper name for it) was/is broken and was bent almost at a 90 degree angle to the left of her beak. We couldn't believe our eyes! Never seen that before. We're pretty sure she's an adult female and we think she showed up with some juvies, possibly hers. But I'll tell you, she was the most fiercest hummingbird we had ever seen! She defended the yard as if it were her own, always on the lookout for other hummers, and if she spotted any, the chase was on. And she didn't miss a one! We wonder if she injured herself in one of those chases because they were very physical and noisy, wings hitting each other and lots of chattering. But in no way did her 'anomaly' slow her down. She fed regularly and put on quite a bit of weight before she left, which I think was yesterday, as I haven't seen her today. Didn't see her at any of her normal perches nor in the other chases we had seen today. She stayed for the whole month of August. I had thought of calling a rehabber at first, but after observing that she was in no way in any distress, was feeding well and active as all get out, best to let mother nature take it's course with this one...she was doing just fine by the looks of things. She fed on plants as well as at the feeder and guarded both with total vigour. My DH and I nicknamed her "Brokebeak the Tough".

I'm posting this now since she's obviously moved on her way south, and she's very recognizable. I thought if those of you south of me watch out for her and spot her it's a way of keeping track of her route in a way. I will post a few of the pics I was able to get of her this past weekend. They're not very good, but you can still see her unusual beak. It never failed...we'd be sitting on the patio and she'd perch a mere 8 feet away and watch us between chases, but as soon as the camera came out, she'd go up to her perch in the trees. I finally borrowed a camera with a zoom lense to get these pics.

If anyone sees her please post when and where so we can hopefully keep tabs on her. Like I said, she's an easy one to recognize and we hope she continues to do well.





Thanks!

Roxy
West Niagara,
Southern Ontario
Canadian Hardiness Zone 6b

Roxy, That was a very interesting and informatative account of your hummer. I so wish I could be one of the ones south of Ontario to look out for it! I hope someone will spot your hummer to report on its progress. I know some other members posted last year about a similar situation where the hummer seemed to fare well. Thanks for reporting this and for the photos - recognizable for sure!

Carol
Milford, CT
Zone 6

Intereseting observation about your little bird. She must be a real 'survivor'!

We will watch for her here, too.

Judy in Zone 6a
Cincinnati (Anderson Twp.)
Southwest Ohio

Roxy

She will more more likely spotted east of me but I will definitely keep a watchful eye out for her if she veers west. Thanks for the post and astute observation. Hopefully she will be spotted by some of our members here and we will be able to somewhat track her southward migration.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Well that looks uncomfortable. I wouldn't imagine she would be able to use most feeders with ease, what kind of feeder did she use? I'll keep her in mind, but I think its like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Pam NJ 6B

She can use her tongue to drink nectar, but how can she catch protein-rich insects with a broken beak?

Zone 5a
East-central Iowa

Hi Roxy, that is quite unusual, never seen that before. Thanks for sharing that in our neck of the woods.


- Andrew - Southern Ontario, Canada - Zone 6
- Won't Get Fooled Again ~ The Who.

Thank you all for your interest in our feisty survivor. She sure was an interesting visitor to have and she definitely kept our attention for the month. It would be amazing if anyone did catch a glimpse of her on her travels. You never know eh? I thank you all for keeping her in mind while you observe your visitors.

Pam, she was quite adept at using both feeders I have. Both are the Perky Pet glass feeders like this one :

She fed from the feeders, nectared and flew like the rest of them. Actually, she ruled the roost! My DH thought for sure we'd find an injured or worse hummer this year, and we weren't expecting it to be Brokebeak...we were certain she would've been the culprit not the victim! Thankfully, no casualties. And now that she's moved on, the hummers that are here are having a great time feeding without getting chased away.

I know it might be a fluke if someone else saw her on her way south, but we'll never know unless we try I guess. I don't expect anyone to go looking for her, just if you see something unusual, it just might be her.

Dan, I thought of how she would catch insects too, as well as how she would preen her feathers. However, I did occasionally see her use her feet to scratch. She seemed to be quite industrious so maybe she has figured out some other way of doing those things. She was here for a month...I'm not sure if an RT can survive that long without protein. If not, then she must have already figured out how to catch the insects with her beak as it was.

She showed up the way she was and we're not certain if she'd always lived her life like that or if it was a recent injury. But going by her high level of activity and agressiveness, nothing was slowing her down which made us wonder if she'd been like that for a while.

Again, thank you all for keeping an eye out for 'BB'. Wouldn't it be amazing if she's spotted?


Roxy
West Niagara,
Southern Ontario
Canadian Hardiness Zone 6b

I had a broken beaked female last year--or was it the year before that? I forget. Anyway, she was also unusually fiesty and I wondered exactly the same thing, if she had collided with something in the heat of a chase. I'm pretty sure it was also in September. I'm to your south in western PA, so I suppose we could be on the same migratory path, although it's incredibly unlikely it would be the same bird. The bird here also had the break in her upper mandible (maxilla) but it wasn't displaced to one side like yours, but bowed upward and clearly broken near the base.

I took a video, but I'm really going to have to dig to find it.

Ooh, here it is....not as hard as I thought it would be. By the way, that's my visiting sister talking in the background on the telephone. How many times can you say, "I think, I think, I think," in a row? She'd probably kill me if she knew I'd posted her voice on the forum.

Kristen,

You are mean!! If you were my sister I'd smack you!

I wonder if the break ever reset like our bones do? Or if it feels pain.

Pam NJ 6B

Awesome video Kristen! Thanks for posting it. Your hummer certainly wasn't camera shy. I tried and tried to get a closeup of ours and everytime I brought the camera out she'd keep her distance. You're very fortunate to have captured yours the way you did. Thanks for sharing!

Definitely common characteristics in our hummers ie. their aggressiveness etc. More than likely how they got their injuries I would surmise. Tough little birds eh? And I wouldn't even begin to wonder if we were on the same migration path. You are south of me and a little east as well. How I would love to know the paths they take!

Andrew, most definitely a rare sighting in our neck of the woods. I'm just glad that she was doing so well. One for our record books for sure!

Roxy
West Niagara,
Southern Ontario
Canadian Hardiness Zone 6b