This is the first time I’ve heard of this behavior, but maybe some birders among you have seen similar incidents.
The photo below comes from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Facebook page, which is public. The original post was in Spanish, but reader Andy ran it through Google translate and came up with this translation:
Alvaro Gonzalez, naturalist guide in Punta Culebra Nature center had the opportunity to observe a rare event with a mantis and a hummingbird. Here is his story:
I was in the area of contact, when I saw the gardener emerald hummingbird taking nectar from the golden trumpets (Tecoma stans (L.) Juss. Ex Kunth), near the Hummingbird, was two birdwatchers trying to identify it. I said the species and then see how the mantis caught a hummingbird at first thought he had tangled with the same plant. I looked for a ladder, because the height was 3 meters (approximately) when subject to the hummingbird, I feel something I press the index finger, I thought it was a snake, but in looking good, I saw the mantis as holding the hummingbird’s neck I tore through his chest. I proceeded to search the camera and take some pictures. Neither visitors nor I believed what we were seeing. The mantis will eat only certain organs and released it.
Many people have contacted me and I said what I saw, I wonder if this had been before or is the first time that this phenomenon occurs?
Andy is skeptical, but the photo looks real for sure. The video below confirms that it can happen, and a similar video shows an unsuccessful attack.
My two questions are these: how does the mantis kill the hummingbird? And how on earth does it eat it?
I recall catching large mantises in Northern California as a child (about 8 or 9), and the bigger ones could easily draw blood from my fingers if I wasn’t careful.
hummers are quite fragile; my guess is that the larger mantis is strong enough to break its neck.
they also have strong mandibles; certainly strong enough to pierce the flesh of a small bird like that.
I don’t suppose the mantid does eat all the bird. It just grabs it as it flits by and finds it has literally bitten off more than it can chew…
Here is a report that I first saw in 2005.
From what I’ve gathered, this is actually not that rare an occurrence. The oldest references I’ve found are from 1949. Anecdotal evidence in The Auk (66:3) suggests that mantids possibly target hummingbirds on occasion: “Late in the afternoon of September 17, 1948, I saw a mantis poised on an orange-colored zinnia. When a hummingbird, Archilochus colubris, flew to the flower, the mantis seized the bird.” (http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v066n03/index.php).
Hummingbirds aren’t that strong so once the mantid has gripped the bird in its spiked forelegs, there’s not a lot the bird can do. Death may be due to a combination of shock, internal injury and eventual consumption.
Of course, when I say ‘mantids possibly target hummingbirds’, I don’t mean that they go hunting with a singular prey species in mind. More that the behaviour of the mantid may suggest that hummingbirds are identified as potential prey.
This seems to happen all the time.
A mantis strike can impale a hummingbird. For eating it, mandibles suffice. Unlike arthropod prey, the hard parts are on the inside.
I can tell you a story from personal experience, when I was little I thought it would be funny to see how my cat reacted to a mantis (give me a break, I was a curious kid) so when I saw one on the hood of our car, I put our cat up there to check it out. My cat sniffed the mantis, only to have the mantis bite his paw. My cat tried to shake it off but that thing would NOT let go.
(Yes I realize the mantis could have merely been defending itself, but at the time I didn’t even realize they could bite).
I so want to try that now
My love of Mantids has diminished. Sniff.
What a waste – obviously part of god’s wonderful obscure plan.
I miss having pet mantids. Such amazing arthropods.
Mantids are awesome killing machines. Back in college (these are memories only biologists have of college), a friend put a praying mantis and a wolf spider together in a terrarium. They sat at opposite ends of the tank, seemingly staring to the other side. After a very long time (maybe not real time, maybe just fucked up time), the mantid flew across the terrarium. Legs off, nom abdomen.
I was once bitten by a mantid. Didn’t draw blood, but it did pinch.
Guess my LOLcatz is not up to scratch, I was confused by this title, Mantid names hummingbird?
why not? why should we bother?
😀
They eat mice and snakes too
this is not the first video of mantis
vs hummingbird
I think this may give me nightmares…!