re: Hummingbirds/Hummingbird feeders

quote:

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They will consume artificial sweeteners, but without realising what they are doing, they will start dropping like flies.

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This reminds me, there are probably more myths about hummingbirds than any other creature out there. Just wait until you hear the one about hummingbirds riding on the backs of geese. Here are some:

Sugar/water ratios: The 4-1 ratio is fine, but there is nothing magic about it. From what I remember, it comes from a study of flower nectars and it is the average of the sugar concentrations in those nectars. There were nectars that were stronger and weaker. If nectar is two weak, weaker than 5:1, the hummingbirds will drink from it about the same as a feeder with just water in it.

Boiling nectar: The first hummingbird that eats from the nectar defeats boiling.

Cleaning feeders with bleach sill harm hummingbirds: Clean with bleach. Whatever bleach remains will be gone the moment that you put sugar water in the feeder due to a reaction between the bleach and the sugar. It doesn't harm the birds.

Don't use red dye: This is probably a remnant of the finding back in the 1970s/80s that Red Dye #2 caused cancer in mice (or something like that). That dye is no longer used. No one knows of any ill effects that red dye causes to hummingbirds. However, there is absolutely no need to use it and not using it is cheaper.

Hummingbirds ride on the backs of geese to migrate: No they don't. Those two birds don't even migrate at the same time of year or in the same direction.

Hummingbirds will die if you put artificial sweetener instead of sugar in your nectar: I've seen this discussed many times with the general conclusion from ornithologists that hummingbirds don't taste the way that we do. Artificial sweetener doesn't fool them into thinking that there is sugar in the water. However, don't use honey because it encourages a specific type of bacteria that is harmful to hummingbirds.

Hummingbirds are the only birds that can . . .
Hover. Nope.
Fly backwards. Nope
Not glide. Nope