fighting hummingbirds trying to stab each other’s eyes out with their bills. The couple has seen a hummer grab the rival’s bill in flight and, locked in midair, the two birds fall to the ground together—then rise to continue the battle. A male hummingbird may spend one minute in fifteen lapping from a favored feeder—and the other fourteen defending it. But the way hummers usually kill rivals is bloodless. They simply chase the rival bird from food until it runs out of energy. It can enter a state called torpor in which the body temperature, normally more than 105 degrees Fahrenheit, falls to
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