Where have all the hummers gone?

I use the hummingbird migration map on the website Hummingbirds.net. I try to get the feeders up a few days before the first ones come through. I've had hummers pretty constantly until this last week. As many as 5 diving and trying to feed.Last fall when they were migrating back I could stand right next to the feeder and stay really still, they would finally ignore me and start to feed again. That is the neatest thing to have them buzzing around your head like you don't exist.

If you stand still and hold your fingers up around the base of a feeder, they will light on the finger tips to eat. They weigh nothing!

Oh my! I'll have to try that this fall.
Thanks Podster

Not all hummers are that socialized. Some are more wary of humans.

Hey Podster, That is amazing how different the male/female looks! They are both pretty but the male is more outstanding.

True of many birds I guess...... like the cardinals, the male being the striking red and the female less noticable in brown.

LOL ~ and I'm certain the boy birds think the girls are lovely. 8 )

Female birds are sexy...they naturally attract the attention of male birds without any bright colors. It's usually the males competing for the female's attention and approval. Unlike humans, it's strictly about natural courtship for the purpose of reproduction of the species.

Yes now that you say that LindaTX8, it's all coming back to me! LOL

The whole birds and bees thing!

Aunt Anne, your post was too funny. I really thought that as soon as I posted a thread about not having any hummers, I would see a ton of them. Alas, still not a one. The butterflies are better than ever though. The hummers do chase them away.

Maybe the agastache blooming will lure some to my yard

Or the monarda

there's that dang jacob cline again irwells. why didn't mine come back? whine whine whine.

Oh my goodness Irwells50, That is some beautiful Monarda!

Hummers should really be attracted to it.

I'm whining too mamajack!! I planted some Monarda heirloom seeds in a pot this spring and the plant is still the size of a sprout!! I wonder what I did wrong?

Well, I have some small ones coming up in a rose bush that I don't want. If you want to dig it up, you can have it.

Irwells50, if you are talking to me that could be do-able. Paris is just north of me, I'm guessing maybe 25, 35 miles. How about you mamajack? I don't know where Fate is.

Just let me know

Hey, Barb, my Jacob Klines didn't come back this year either. But Sheila gave me some of her Raspberry Wine, and it is gorgeous too!

well the "blue" monarda is out there ready to bloom. dawn and i are going to be rich so this might be your last chance to hobknob with the likes of us. and irwells said we could do a trade so they better be blue.

hey patti....how are your toads? and are you getting that coleus?

My hummers are going through nearly 2 quarts of syrup a day.

I found what I think is a wonderful recipe for feeding hummers. It is the correct ratio of water to sugar for hummingbird food. Do not use honey.

1 C water
1/4 C sugar

Bring water to a boil and add sugar; boil two minutes, remove from heat and let cool to room temp.

It's cheaper than the store bought syrup and the hummers like it. There are no red food dyes or whatever else might be in the store bought syrups.

2 Quarts! That's a lot of syrup!

I have hummers. Blue and green and some looking black or green with red throats. We have some that look like babies playing chase.

Also, when you make hummer food, it would seem they prefer pure cane sugars. I have the best luck feeding with that sugar. I don't boil it for that long tho. Seems I read somewhere just enough to dissolve the sugar.

Kendalia, how many feeders do you have out? You are staying busy tending to these little guys! 8 )

I usually have more hummers than I do this year. Just a few around. I have 3 feeders up and only occasionally see one at the feeders. I have seen them at my blooming lavender. They are usually fighting several at at time at the feeders but I have not seen more than one at at time so far this year.

The little stinkers sound like helicopters all over my head when I go out in the yard. They are so use to us, they play all around my head when I'm working in my plants.

well now that just ain't right. are you serious? helicopters? makes me think of the old cartoons like the roadrunner and wiley coyote. you know those little birdies flying around wiley's head after the acme whatever malfunctioned.

These things are so cute. You just hear this LOUD purring and sputtering and look up and there they went. They get right on your head. Don't light except in the trees and food containers for a drink but you'd think theyre going to buzz your brain.

have you ever caught one? do they peck? that was the story my grandpa told me when i was a kid.

Are you kidding? I was told they would drill a hole in your hand, I wouldn't try. I have a friend that keeps feeders out all winter along the side of her carport with big cedars along the side also and they nest there and are so friendly they fly all around while you sit there and they build nests and raise babies there at her house. They are beautiful. I planted a bunch of cedars so they can build nests and put out feeders but haven't noticed them staying past fall. They come back in April.

They migrate south every fall and then migrate back north in the spring. Kind of like the Monarchs...they can't survive the cold winter weather and also need access to nectar-producing plants (or feeders) year-round.

We live in S.C. and hers stay year round.

Maybe different species can tolerate more cold. But here, with winter temps into lows to 20's or sometimes even in the high teens, no hummingbirds can stay around past fall...they head down to Mexico, I think. On rare occasion I've spotted the Violet-Ear Hummingbird here, which is a tropical species.

I don't know their names but they are blue/green and some dark with the red on necks, just like the ones that come here and play at my head. But she keeps food out year round on her carport and They stay all the time. EVEN winter they are in the cedar trees and eating on her carport.

Nope, they don't peck. Their beak is actually a bit flexible. And although they buzz us and make us duck, they aren't aggressive to people at all. I believe they know who plants those bloomers and fills the feeders.

I know. It's more like they are playing. They act like the same ones come back here each year and bring the babies too.

They are the same. Amazingly, the birds and offspring do return every season. For that reason, Elphaba may be correct on the hummingbird shortage being caused by Hurricane Ike.

thanks podster. i figured it was just my papa's way of saying " leave them birds alone".

Podster,
I have two feeders. But they are the ones with multiple stations. I use cane sugar, too. No boiling necessary--just need to dissolve the sugar.

Kendalia ~ yours must be large bottles. I've been using single servers. The hummers seem to like them and although I have to add food more often, they are easy to clean.

Podster, yes, quart bottles.
Mekos, here is a quote from a site on hummingbirds; notice the last sentence:
As with most of our migratory birds, hummingbirds apparently evolved to their present forms during the last ice age. They were (and largely still are) tropical birds, but as the great ice sheets retreated from North America, they gradually expanded their ranges to exploit rich temperate food resources and nesting space, filling unoccupied niches in the U.S and southern Canada while evading intense competition in the tropics. Some songbird species have adapted completely to our variable North American climates, in part by becoming vegetarians in winter, and don't migrate. But hummingbirds are carnivores (nectar is just the fuel to power their flycatching activity), and depend on insects that are not abundant in subfreezing weather, so most of them must retreat back "home" to Central America in the winter or risk starvation. A few Ruby-throated remain along the Gulf coast each winter instead of continuing to Central America, perhaps because they are too old or sick to make another trans-Gulf flight or too young (from very late nests) to have had time to grow fat and strong enough to migrate; their survival chances depend on the severity of each particular winter, and many perish in unusually cold years. Another small population winters in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

And we are just under the border or N.C. Wow. That was nice to hear. Maybe explains why they stay at her house. I've been there in Dec. sitting on her carport and watch them flying around us and she told me they nest there in her cedar trees and sure enough, I saw tiny little nests in the cedar. They look smaller than the nests of the little finches we have. And closed .