The Stopping Power of Sugar-Water

Cooperation is hard.

A few weeks ago, my wife noticed some hummingbirds flying around a bush near our apartment. Naturally, my first instinct was to wean them off nature’s goodness and get them hooked to the bird feeder I can see outside my window. It didn’t take long. Within a couple days, the hummers had reconnoitered and assaulted my feeder like a swarm of Iranian speedboats. With eight or so birds eating harmoniously, we were going through four cups of sugar-water a day.

Then, earlier this week, they stopped. I could still see them buzzing around the apartment, but they wouldn’t approach the feeder. Since midterms are coming up, I though the best use of my time would be to sit and observe my feeder to see if I could determine why they had suddenly become less hungry.

The answer was easy: there was a bully! A rogue hummingbird that would attack any other hummers that dared approach his feeder (notice, that the bully is male). Naturally, I began to craft a theory on hummingbird relations.

Assumption 1: Hummingbird food is finite (resources are scare).
Assumption 2: Hummingbirds are territorial and don’t react kindly to encroachments of other hummingbirds (defending the homeland is a vital interest)
Assumption 3: Eventually, weaker hummingbirds will stop trying to eat from my feeder (dissuasion).

Now, it’s helpful to think in terms of equations, so here’s my causal logic:

Scarcity →  encroachment on vital interests →  hummingbird war → weaker hummers go hungry

Furthermore, we can ask, what do these hummers tell us about the viability of collective action? Sure, hummingbirds aren’t nearly as smart as humans (well, some of them are), but nature is filled with creatures who recognize that there is strength in numbers: lions travel in prides, wolves live in packs, and ants find security in their mounds of dirt until something big steps on them.

Why don’t the weaker hummingbirds band together to drive off the lone bully? Are they dumb? Or are they smart enough to know that they can’t really trust anyone and that in reality, every hummingbird is out for himself? Or maybe the trouble of organizing simply isn’t worth it when there’s a perfectly good bush around the corner?

I’ll continue waiting for the hummers to prove me wrong, but I fear I’ll need to start getting used to making less sugar water.