Hummingbirds and Cats

by Suzanne

I don't have any good grackle stories, but at one time, several years ago, we had a hummingbird feeder out on our porch. One of our old cats, Juliet, would sit on the porch railing by the feeder and watch it. We did not want the feeder to be like her own personal buffet, but it was hard to get her away from it once she got fixated on it.

Luckily, though, it was fairly high up on the railing and hummingbirds are fast. I never saw her go after any birds, but she always sat there, about two feet away, watching it.

One time, we were looking out the kitchen window and watching the hummingbird feeder. There were two birds there and my cat. A few minutes later, another bird came in and started to drink for a few seconds. It then flew up and went over to the cat and sort of whacked her on her head.

She got startled and sat up. The bird flew around her head and she watched it. I think she was getting scared. She swiped at it and it rammed into her head again.

After it circled around her, she started backing up against the wall. The bird went back to the feeder and Juliet sat there for a few minutes, just looking at it.

She sat back down with her feet tucked under her, but this seemed to annoy the bird because it flew back at her. The bird made a beeline towards her, startling her and causing her to fall off the porch.