Hummingbird Buddies

[Blackhorse]

20F outside at noon today…very windy.

I think this is really cool. I was outside with Watson, my Pug, and noticed that my four hummingbird feeders were all frozen solid. So after getting W inside, I went out and gathered the four feeders together and set them in the sink to thaw. One of them was small and nearly empty so I rinsed it with hot water and got it ice free, and then added new sugar water to it and put it outside. There were immediately five or six hummingbirds swarming all over it. They must've been starving in the freezing weather. After an hour or so, I took one of the other smaller feeders, thawed it and washed it out and filled it with new sugar water. I took it outside, and got about three steps out of the back slider and was swarmed by about three eager hummingbirds. One of them with a brilliant ruby throat landed on one of the little plastic flowers, and started feeding even while the feeder was dangling from my index finger and held up a foot from my nose. It sat there and drink away for two or three minutes before it looked up at me, unafraid, and then finally flew away. I have never had a hummingbird feed from my hand before, so to speak. Really really neat.

 

[DWSmith]

Neat story! Thanks.

I get a kick out of our hummingbirds too. We have a dozen +/- that hang around our feeders in nice weather. I've had them just 2' or 3' from me feeding as long as I hold very still. They're probably a thousand miles away this time of year. It's -11°F now.

 

[Ranger107]

When the weather is nice we have one that hangs from the patio cover about 5' from the table where we sit and have morning coffee. There is one we call Charlie. He will come up to the patio, hover in front of me, less than a foot away, for maybe 5 or10 seconds, then zoom off to the feeder. They are fun to watch.

 

[Blackhorse]

Ahhhh. We’re thawing already so I out all the feeders out this morning at first light. Lots of happy zoomers.

 

[Zeno Marx]

On the Nature series on PBS, Big Bend National Park in Texas has 15 of the 30 types. Here's a cool clip. I hope it works. They do these for educational purposes and then get screwy with how to view them.

https://wisconsin.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/big-bends-hummingbirds-video/nature-season-39/

 

[Ol'Dawg]

It's neat when they were feeding near the stations. In October 1st they leave but come back in mid April here.

 

[Timbo]

Lovely stuff BH, nice to have them feeding from your hands.

I saw a neat trick with someone putting a heated pad of some kind under the feeder to keep it thawed.