Hummingbirds in the NW

for years I've been feeding Hummingbirds that migrate up in the early spring and then they leave around the Summer solstice, but I've heard that there is a species that is here all year. does anyone in the Puget Sound region have any news on this and how do you keep them here? Jim

From Peterson's Field Guide I understand that "Anna's Hummingbird" can be resident here all year long, but it's range is Seattle and west. Not a clue on how you keep them around since this is the first year I've been in the right area for them. I had several pairs of hummers here for the summer, but I finally took down my feeder a couple weeks ago because I hadn't seen any for quite a while. I think I had mostly / only Rufous hummers at my house. I'll be watching to see what advice others have for you. :-)

MzWeazelle, thanks, I took down my feeders in July because of no action. when they were here I filled 2 feeders every other day because of all the Hummers. Jim

There are two migrations, spring and fall. If you leave your feeders up you will visited by hummers heading south late summer and fall. It is unnecessary to take down feeders for the winter. Its a myth that that will force hummers to migrate. A hungry hummer wintering over will just look for food elsewhere. I had hummers that wintered for years in the cold Sierras eating tiny insects and using my feeders. They also lick sweet sap and I've watched them lick frozen feeders for a treat.

I didn't take down my feeders because I was concerned about frustrating the migration, I just get tired of wasting sugar every time I refill them and don't get any visitors. I'd keep them up until they froze if I saw even one hummer. :-)

I only have one feeder out now and only put a cup of syrup in it. 1/3 c sugar to 2/3 c HOT tap water. With the cooler weather it stays good a lot longer too. I had one hummer here two days ago so they're still out there.

I gave up on feeders, but my crocosmia and penstemons get lots of visitors!

I keep my feeders up all year, hummers here all year... they slow down in deep winter but just for a couple weeks.

thanks all, I see a lot of encouragement here to leave them up. I'll do that in the new year. thanks for all the replies, hostajim1

Thanks from me, too. Looks like I better dust off the feeder and put it back out, even if I only fill it part way. I'd sure like to encourage the hummers to stick around.

MzWeazelle, do you think that it would work? I might go ahead and try it for a month. Jim

Not a clue -- this is all experimental for me. I know that the hummers disappeared for awhile this summer while everything was blooming, but they came back for a bit when the flowers started to fade away.

I watch Cisco on his tv garden shows. He said that hummers in the winter love the plant Mahonia. They have yellow flowers in winter. Does anyone know what type of Mahonia, as I went looking online, and there are about 8 with yellow flowers. Maybe I should just ask Cisco?
Darlene

Darlene, Mahonia AKA Oregon Grape. come in different sizes, I guess you could buy the ones that best suits you garden. I have the indigenous one, it's a low growing ground cover. I never planted them they all have self seeded. I was pulling them up, and planting other things. but now I'm leaving some of them alone. Jim

This morning I had a hummer feeding off my potted abutilon sitting on the balcony, never seen one here before. I did not see his details as I wasnt wearing my glasses when I spotted him out the window. We're expecting a hard freeze here tonite, I wonder where he'll go.

Wigela are great hummingbird attractants. Too bad they are in bloom for only a month. We get ruby throated variant here in the Yakima Valley for a few weeks in May and June. They move on to more humid climates. We get aboout 10 inches of precipitatio here. That is about 10 to 25% of what the Puget Sounders endure on the average.