Hummingbirds in my backyard." Sephanoides galeritus"

I always try to keep some flower and feeds for hummingbirds and during the summer I had a couple of them getting very comfortable with the nectar I did provide for them in my backyard, so much so that they opted out to become my permanent boarders.

Slowly the 2 of them became 6 and so on and now in the depth of winter they're still here and they do depend solely on my formula: there isn't many flowers around with nectar for any of them.

I manage ( I should say, my son did it for me! ) to get some photos of these tiny little things. I do know there are more than a dozen and they do keep a beautiful symphony with their calls, especially when they're coming for a feed and they are all around when I go out to put the formula into their feeder, the same is just a half soft drink bottle painted as a flower ( there isn't anything resembling a Hummingbird Feeder around here, so I've got to improvise), but they do love the formula!!!!!

I'm sending you a couple of pictures of some of them enjoying the feed.

These hummingbirds species are endemic in Chile and they do live from the Atacama Desert to the Patagonia


The species is : Sephanoides galeritus

And here we have another shot!

I counted more than a dozen !

OMG thats GORGEOUS!!....pack some of those jewels up and send them to florida! LOL......amazing piccies you took. :)
Oh ohh "me editing post"........I never thought to use SODA bottles as feeders....!!!! Imma make one now ! LOL.....(((HUGS!!!)))



This message was edited Thursday, Jul 31st 11:18 PM

How Beautiful!

Thanks for sharing, Christina, put one of these pics on the Photos Forum, everyone should see these :oD

Cristina, what wonderful pictures! Are your feeders open? Around here ants, bees, flies and wasps all try to get the nectar so we use specially designed feeders to try to keep all these critters out.

Chile got so many beautiful flowers and many , many birds in the wild, that gardening in general is not as big as it should be!

I learnt about feeding hummingbirds here, in DG's.

There isn't any shop that sell hummingbirds feeders so, as I said I did improvise.

My houseguest, they do not mind, they start their symphony early morning for their first feed!

Cristina,
I am happy for you, having so many hummers. They really are special little birds. The Ruby Throats that we get here in Alabama migrate here from Central America. They arrive her around the 1st of March and most have left by the 10th of November. A few stay the winter along the gulf coast.
If you will send me your address, I will send you a couple of feeders.

Larry

Larry, Would you do that !

That would be tooooooooooooo cooooooooooolllllll!

I'll mail you!

Cristina,what are you feeding them?

That is soooo awesome!

Hi Karyn How're you going?

I keep the ratio of 4 : 1.

I just put 1 cup of white sugar to 4 cups of water, I bring it to boiling point, stirring a couple of times to make sure sugar is dissolved, simmer for a couple of seconds then I cool it down with the lid on, in the fridge.

They really love the nectar!

Shesh,I was doing 2 to 1,too strong huh?

I do think so !

Just follow 4:1 ratio and you will see the difference.

Nice photos! I can't believe that many hummers can get along well enough to feed togheter. I rarely have more than one at a time on the feeder, because they always chase each other away.

Another thing I have a hard time believing in this heat, is that you are in the middle of winter.

Paintedlady, yes I couldn't believe it either.

When Autumm arrived here, I thought they were going to migrate north, I do live in the 38degree 45minute south of the Ecuator; they did prove me wrong and they did stay !!!

From time to time I do have a little round one, I do think it must be female, she takes possession of the feeder so I separate some....

Another thing is that, over here winter is very wet, I do hang the "feeders" under any cover I could find and, well they do find their "nectar".

Cristina your photos are amazing. I am thrilled when I get 3 hummers in my yard. I don't know what I would do if I had as many as you do. Enjoy them, they're beautiful.

Plus those hummers look big! It must be all that good nectar you are feeding... About how big are they?

Cristina, thanks so much for sharing these wonderful pictures and introducing us to Sephanoides galeritis or the Green Backed Firecrown.

I'm just now reading a book by Arnette Heidcamp, "Hummingbirds, My Winter Guests". She also wrote "A Hummingbird in My House." You would enjoy reading them as I'm sure you could relate to her experiences.

broots, yes they're so nice. I do enjoy them.

They make a specific call when they find their "feeder" empty.... and a beautiful symphony when they're happy after their feed!

southernOhio, they reach 5gr and 11 cm long that is from the tip of the beak till the tail's end.

http://www.geocities.com/avesdechile2/picaflor.html

trillium_girl, I do imagine those books as good reading.

Not available here but, I can identify myself with both books titles, They're my guest all through the winter {"Hummingbirds, My Winter Guests"} and sometimes the little ones, the babies I mean, fly into the house ["A Hummingbird in My House"] and we have to rescue them out .... a real sweet drama, they get frighten and panicky then you you try to get it perched in one of your finger and then with the other hand, ever so careful catch it, bring it out and set it free, it flies away to the nearest but safe branch of the nesting tree, a huge Douglas fir and it look back to you, happy to be free....

I will post a photo tomorrow.

oh these are so wonderful. you are a good hostess to all your feathered friends here. i'm sure they love coming to "christina's inn and maternity ward". :) keep taking pictures this is terrific. thank you debi z

I thought they looked big. Our ruby throated hummers have the following stats.

Overall body length (tip of bill to tip of tail) in RTHUs ranges from about 70mm in males to about 90mm in females.

During the breeding season, typical male RTHUs have masses from 2.8g to 3.5g, while females average about half a gram heavier.

It stop raining for some hours and I went out the back door to continue with the winter cleaning and preparation of flower beds.

A little later, one of my sons called out "One is inside, one is inside", walk into the house and a little one was trying to break out through one of the skylight I have in the kitchen, it was scared and hit the glass time and again to reach the sky, not comprehending why it could not fly away.

This is one of the new guest , one of the "babies" of the group. I'm balancing on top of a stool reaching it until it perched on my finger and my son taking the picture.

This is the other photo

Wow, only in MY dreams...

That is so neat. What a great bunch of pictures. I'd love to see it in person!

Yes, it is something worth seen.

Floridian, anytime you'll be welcome