Debbe, it must be extremely horrifying to have seen such a thing when you are trying to care and provide for them. I'm so sorry.

Hummers are so tiny they are prey to all sorts of creatures, including big spiders and preying mantis. However, it seems your two were killed by something that didn't want them for food, just for the killing. Also it had to be something that could hold the body still somehow while taking off the head. The idea of a preying mantis just sticks in my head.

Try this link for some articles about it.

hummingbird predators

I can't tell you what it means to me that you obviously took the time to really think about this. Thank you so very much!! I'm having nightmares about it!! I've never seen a praying mantis up here but what you say about something that can hold it.....well....makes so !such sense, I'm watching like a hawk!!

Again, this means so much to me that you've answered my plea.

Thank you!!

Gracie, for some reason this won't let me reply below your name....but, I really, sincerely appreciate your comment. We do have a better fox family that lives close...I've never seen them in our yard...how do you think that they would reach them?

Thank you so very much.

I don't know how a fox could get a hummer, unless the hummer was in the flowers. In my area (midwest) foxes leave headless bunnies & squirrels in lawns.

It might also be a feral cat. Domestic cats that are allowed to roam free are a huge threat to song birds and other small wildlife, as well. If you have neighbor's who let their cats run free, you might ask them to at least put bells on their collars.

Martha

Yep even as a kid growing up in an apartment complex, I learned to dislike cats that roam around because of what they did to my pet birds. The cats get to act like hunting animals because people will excuse them for their origins, but those of us who have lost pet birds or even pet rodents to these neighborhood cats can't do much about it because we would definitely get in trouble for harming them more than they harmed our pet.

Now you might wonder, why are our pet birds and rodents outside where the cats can get them? It's partially because like many pets that get used to you and you can just let them free roam and then get them back into their cage later, my birds were outside playing around near the front door when one was grabbed by a cat. Later as an adult, I've lost several free-roaming chickens to a neighborhood cat, too, that would get into my yard the way that they usually go into anyone's yards.

I've also seen cats move so fast to catch and play around with mice. Even I couldn't move that fast if a mouse was inches away from me. So it's not above reason to expect that a cat may have attacked the hummingbirds.