My Hummingbirds are really.... Rescue update

last year by late August I had at least 40 Hummingbirds fighting over three small feeders. Each of the small feeder had 3 flowers for feeding. It ran me ragged keeping up with the little suckers appetie. I had to fill the three feeders at least 3 times a day. If I was sitting on the porch and the feeders ran low they would come right up to me and hover a few feet in from of me as if to get my attention.

This year I decided to buy 4 Large feeders that had 4 flowers on each so they would have more places to feed from and maybe cut down on my refill ritual. Up until today I only had three of the feeders out because my hummer population hadn't reached last years peak yet. They were fighting over the 3 so I decided to hang another but in a different location so maybe they would not fight as much. With the new feeder they are all over at it fighting, and only a few are still at the old feeders. This morning while watching them fight over the new feeder, they would swarm in 3's and 4's and then come up and hover in front of me. I don't know what they were trying to tell me but between fighting over the feeder and hovering in front of me no one was actually getting any of the feed. It was very puzzling because they were trying to tell me something but I'm at a loss what it was. All of the feeders were full.:confused::confused::D

maybe they wanted a different flavor :D

I only have one flavor, Domino. They are getting the same 3 to 1 mix
I have been using for years. Maybe they want it souped up some.:D


















t

I have had the same kind of feeder for years and was on my third one.
They just wear out!

My most recent one came crashing to the ground because the plastic base cracked and loosened the grip on the glass jar.

My local pet shops don't have the same kind so I had to order it online.
It will take several days for it to get here.

In the meantime I am using another type that has a glass jar for the liquid, but the base is metal rather than plastic - and holes rather than
"flowers" around the holes. They figured out how to use it soon enough, but it is really clear that they don't like it. They have hovered in front of me too - and I just tell them to be patient a few more days.

It is also hot - and I think the liquid gets hot - too hot for them to drink.

Maybe that is the message they are sending to you????

Do you have any pictures of the type of hummingbirds you have in your area?

I haven't had one single hummer at my feeders this year, that I have seen. :( We never have hundreds or anything, we aren't in the right climate for that, but we usually have half a dozen or so consistently feeding. This year, nothing. Hope it's not a calamity for hummingbirds overall!

quote by gini

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It is also hot - and I think the liquid gets hot - too hot for them to drink.

Maybe that is the message they are sending to you????

Do you have any pictures of the type of hummingbirds you have in your area?

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I had just put the new feeder out so I know the liquid was not hot. I don't know what the problem is. I hang my feeders in the shade and change the contents every day or so. It just started getting hot here a day or two ago so I don't think heat is their problem.

This afternoon I had let Koko out to do her business and she got sidetracked so I was calling for her real loud. All of a sudden 3 hummers came zooming on to the porch as if to say here WE are. I have had my hummers coming close before but not like this year. It seem like everytime I go out on the porch I will have some zooming me.

I plan to take some pictures of them as soon as possible and post them. I hope that I can Identify the various species if I can get some close ups. The only species I know for sure is Ruby Throated. I have some other types also but can't see them well enough to identify them. I'm hoping still shots will be easier to compare to pictures available online.

The new feeders I have are all plastic with a built in ant guard. If you don't have an ant guard in my area the feeder gets full of ants in a very shot time. i'm amazed that they can find their way up a tree to the feeder.

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The new feeders I have are all plastic with a built in ant guard. If you don't have an ant guard in my area the feeder gets full of ants in a very shot time. i'm amazed that they can find their way up a tree to the feeder.

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I had an ant problem big time. My feeder hangs from a bracket that is attached to the eaves of the house.

I used vaseline on the bracket starting from where it is attached to the wall and was liberal with smearing it on.

It has stopped the ants so you might try it.

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Originally Posted by kokopup

last year by late August I had at least 40 Hummingbirds fighting over three small feeders. Each of the small feeder had 3 flowers for feeding. It ran me ragged keeping up with the little suckers appetie. I had to fill the three feeders at least 3 times a day. If I was sitting on the porch and the feeders ran low they would come right up to me and hover a few feet in from of me as if to get my attention.

This year I decided to buy 4 Large feeders that had 4 flowers on each so they would have more places to feed from and maybe cut down on my refill ritual. Up until today I only had three of the feeders out because my hummer population hadn't reached last years peak yet. They were fighting over the 3 so I decided to hang another but in a different location so maybe they would not fight as much. With the new feeder they are all over at it fighting, and only a few are still at the old feeders. This morning while watching them fight over the new feeder, they would swarm in 3's and 4's and then come up and hover in front of me. I don't know what they were trying to tell me but between fighting over the feeder and hovering in front of me no one was actually getting any of the feed. It was very puzzling because they were trying to tell me something but I'm at a loss what it was. All of the feeders were full.:confused::confused::D

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Hmm, that is odd. I have only two hummingbirds that come around that I can see and I refill the feeder twice a week, which I thought was a lot. Usually I refill it once a month, if that.

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Originally Posted by gini

My local pet shops don't have the same kind so I had to order it online.

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Try a garden supply store. That's where I buy mine. Also there are wildlife stores that carry them, too.

by Medusa

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Hmm, that is odd. I have only two hummingbirds that come around that I can see and I refill the feeder twice a week, which I thought was a lot. Usually I refill it once a month, if that.

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If i had only a couple of hummers that I could see I'm sure I could get to twice a week on refill. Last year when they were at their peak I could see 12-15 flying and others in the dogwoods resting. They say that your population is 4 times what you can normally count. Right now I'm not filling my feeders up all the way. I want to keep fresh in so I am limiting the amount until the
population gets to what it was by mid August last year. At my peak last year I was going through 4 cups of feed a day. The 4 cups being my standard 3
to 1 mix.

I would never let my feed hang for over a week here because in our August heat it will ferment or go rancid. I had an apartment neighbor years ago that had intoxicated hummers from not changing the feed enough. I found one of the birds laying in a flower bed knocked out.

By Gini

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I had an ant problem big time. My feeder hangs from a bracket that is attached to the eaves of the house.

I used vaseline on the bracket starting from where it is attached to the wall and was liberal with smearing it on.

It has stopped the ants so you might try it.

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Thanks for the vaseline suggestion. I will give it a try. I have another feeder
that I hadn't put out because of the ants. I will give the vaseline the test
on this one.

http://community-2.webtv.net/Velpics/HUM/

Just in case any of you missed this video!

Will Vaseline keep bees away, too? I watched them actually dive bomb my poor hummingbirds even when they flew away. Poor little things can't feed. When I cleaned the feeder last night, the bees came after me, too.

I haven't had any experience with the bee issue. I do have a few bees but my
humming birds population has gotten so big they would keep the bees away
with all of their activity. My population of hummers is almost twice what I was
seeing last year. I have 4 big feeder that have to be filled about every 4th
day. I'm even seeing them share this year. I am seeing up to 3 feeding on the same feeder at once. I never saw this last year.

I doubt that the vaseline will help with the bees since they fly in rather than
crawl in. The ants would have to walk over the vaseline.

It seems like my Humming Bird population grows a little every day. Last year I had 3 small feeders that I had to fill several times a day. This year with 4 large feeders I am not running like I had to last year but I am still amazed at how much these little guys are consuming. I have already put out almost 3 gallons of sugar water. For some reason they will favor one feeder over another and the feeder they favor will be emptied in a day. The favored feeder will change from day to day.:confused:

I am really amazed watching these guys fight/play where they fly in circles and chase each other around. My porch has post about every 10 feet and they will come zooming under the porch, by me sitting in a rocker, then do circles around these post, while flying in tandem. There are big trees in their flight path and they zoom in circles around these then back under the porch.
I keep expecting to find one or both on the ground due to a mid air crash into a tree or porch post.

I have really enjoyed watching these guys play and I think they enjoy putting on a show for me.:D

My hummingbird population this year was really something. I ended up with 7 feeders and they were all busy up until just about a week ago. All of a sudden they were gone except for one or two stragglers. I decided this morning to take down all my feeders but one since i hadn't seen any birds the day before. When I went out to one of the feeders there was a hummer
just sitting on the feeder, all balled up like it was cold. It go to the high 40's here last night. When I walked closer it tried to fly off but ended up only going around 50 feet before landing on the ground under some azaleas. When I walked out to see about it it was on the ground and did not struggle when I picked it up. I ended up bring it in and putting it in a box for warmth. For a while it appeared to be dead but after around 30 minutes in the warmth it started trying to fly.

I contacted the Wild life Rescue at Oak Mountain asking for advice. I wasn't sure if it would be ok, if I just took it out now that it had warmed up, and let it go. It is getting colder tonight so I was afraid it might not make it. They ask me to bring it to the rescue, so Koko and I took a ride out to the Park to take the little fellow to Rescue. We needed to check on some trail we had worked on last week anyway so this worked out for the hummer and Koko got a needed hike at Oak Mountain. I'll do a follow up on it's status in a week to find out what the rescue ended up doing for hummer. By the way from what I can tell from the markings it was probably a Rufous hummingbird.