The Interesting Courtship Behavior Of Hummingbirds

Hummingbird is a small bird of the Trochilidae family. The rapid beating of the hummingbirds wings (60 to 80 beats per second) makes the distinctive humming sound from which they get their name.

They are found only in North America and South America.
The hummingbird range extends as far north as southeastern Alaska and the hummingbird range extends as far south as southern Chile.
South America has the biggest variety of hummingbirds and more than half the species are found there. The country of Ecuador in northwestern South America has the largest number of hummingbirds of any one country with 163 different species.
The Hummingbirds courtship behavior is very interesting
They communicate with one another by making visual displays. Males sometimes raise the feathers bordering the gorget and toss their heads from side to side, while uttering shrill sounds. Females and young are more likely to do perched displays in which they spread their tail feathers to show the white tips.
Sometimes both males and females do shuttle-flights, which are rapid back and forth movements in front of another bird. During the shuttle flight, the tail and gorget may be displayed.
Dive display are only done by the males. At key points in the dive, buzzing, whistling, or popping sounds might be made with the wing feathers or the vocal cords. The trajectory of the dive is U-shaped. At the top of the arc, the bird may be quite high in the air.
The narrowly-focused shuttle dance of the male is usually part of a courtship ritual. After finding a ready female, he flies in front of her in short, rapid arcs. The dance field may be about ten inches wide.
We once saw a black-chinned hummingbird shuttle like this in front of a female that was perched in a mesquite. Looking intimidated, she moved her head back and forth to watched his awesome arial movements, which were only inches from her face; then she hung upside-down by her toes as he mounted her.
In some hummingbirds--mostly species that are south of the border--the males gather in communities, which are called leks. Then they all sing together to try to entice females to come into the neighborhood for mating.