Hummers

[Jerry]

These little guys are viscous when we put out the feeders each summer.









If we don't keep the feeders full, they will buzz us when we go outside until we refill them. It sounds like a swarm of the biggest bees in the world

[Coastie]

My mom has a feeder and she just loves her hummingbirds. She can watch them for hours but I have never had them buzz me.

[BruceK]

Early in the summer when they first show up here in the NE USA it can be a bit of a shock when you're buzzed by one. I keep thinking that it's one of those bloody big carpenter bees, the ones that look about the size of B52s, but then I realize that it's a hummer. We don't see multiple birds at our feeders, though. Only one at a time. Disappoints the wife something fierce when she sees photos like the above where there are several birds per feeder...

Bruce

[JiminDC]

Do you make your own syrup? My wife wants to make her own (after she heard that the red dye can cause kidney damage) but doesn't know the proportions of sugar to water.

Thanks,

[Tobus]

We used to put out hummingbird feeders, but they come whether we do or not. And in fact they will fight over it. So we stopped doing it, and they still come feed at the flowers in front of our porch.

I love listening to them talk to each other. They have quite a complex language, with extremely varied noises that they make. Everything from staccato chirping to a whining drone sound that they make when doing mating dances.

They really are incredible little creatures, and I love having them around.

Do you make your own syrup? My wife wants to make her own (after she heard that the red dye can cause kidney damage) but doesn't know the proportions of sugar to water.

It's really not that critical. As long as it's sweet and has a syrup consistency, they'll drink it. And the red dye is absolutely not necessary as long as the feeder itself will attract them.

[Bugbear]

Yep, have lots of them in my area. They like my hibiscus flowers, and citrus blooms, etc.

[sydnie7]

"Hummer juice" as we make it:

Four parts water to one part white sugar (never honey). Bring to a boil and keep it there for about 10-15 seconds to make sure any microbes are dead. No dye. Keep it in the fridge for feeder fill-ups, and be sure to clean any black gunk out of feeder/rinse in hot water before refill.

We typically get one bird at a time, who sits and guards all three backyard feeders, driving off any others that dare enter! But they also work the flowers in yard and there's less competition. Bob keeps a front-yard feeder going outside his office window and it seems to capture more "transients." They do buzz us when we walk through yard and especially when I'm taking down/rehanging the feeders.

When my mother lived in Wyoming, she got dozens at a time especially when the babies came off the nest. They would perch shoulder-to-shoulder and multiple birds would drink from one outlet! Too young to know that they were supposed to be territorial.

We hear lots of vocalizing but the most common sounds just like the click of the ignitor on gas stove.

[Jerry]

We have two feeders out, and there are constantly swarms of them around. As well as I could count with them darting about, I counted 8 at one feeder the other day. And yes we make our own feed. I think it is the same recipe mentioned above, but my wife found it on an Audubon website

[Jerry]

I had the front feeder inside to be washed and refilled this morning and they were buzzing around the red stripes in a small American flag my wife has out on the porch

[JiminDC]

Syndnie7 - thanks for the info. I will pass this on to my wife. We get lots of activity at the regular feeders, but have never had a lot of hummers at that feeder.