re: Hummingbirds/Hummingbird feeders

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That photo was taken during the fall migration. Notice the immature males around the feeder. How to get numbers:

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BiggerBear, I won't copy all your suggestions. They are all good. I'm in Houston area - 15 years of Hummers. Will add my experience:

Early to mid-March. Check. In fact, hummers are excellent homing birds and will return year after year to your exact feeder location. Don't have your feeders up yet in early March? I have had them stare at me through my kitchen window where my feeder should have already been up in early to mid March. Quite an experience. Day after day. Like he (yes, males arrive first) was asking me why is my feeder not there?

Yep, enough red in plastic feeders' color. Do not put red in sugar water. Yep, in mid summer never let sugar water go over a week w/o changing it.

Clean feeders after they go dry several times. Which can be weekly. Rinse out before refilling each time. Which can be every 2 days. Sorry. That's the chore for me (along with preparing and cooling the sugar water). But clean feeders protect the birds. If not cleaned, you will notice black bacteria growth around the feeder holes. Do not let that happen, IMO.

Get feeders with 360 degree ring perches, if possible (rather than only 4 perches/holes per feeder). Many more birds will perch on 6 hole (or 4 hole if they exist) ring perch feeders than 4 hole 4 perch feeders.

Yep, space at least 6 feeders (if possible for your situation) on hooks at least 10 feet apart. If not possible, still try for 6 feeders at least even if several are within only several feet of one another. You will be rewarded. "Bully" hummers come and go and often get gang bullied themselves by several other hummers (both males and females). Those battles can be very entertaining "swarmfests".

Numerous times during the March - late October season you should see 10 or more hummers around one or two feeders. Just like the pics in this thread depicts.

If you're into taking pics of them, try locating feeders just outside of windows. They only take a minute or two to get used to your presence with your camera. Good "shooting".

Yep, I did also have a Rufus hummer show up one year in November. I took many pics. Eventually I figured out what type of hummer he was. He stayed several weeks. I guess it got too cold, because he eventually left.

Mount a few feeders on your front porch or balcony. Sit outside in afternoon. They will swarm all around you. They don't care if you're there or not, as long as you're relatively still and non-threatening.

Love hummers. Quite an experience with nature...

Excellent post.

A local garden center gave a talk in which they stated that the sugar water concentration should not be stronger than 4/1 because it is hard on the hummingbird kidneys to have it stronger. That was news to me, I've always used 3/1 and most summers I've had dozens of birds.

Hummingbirds have 2-3 broods in a year so the numbers build as the year goes on. And then the migrants show up and the numbers really go up. So a late start doesn't hurt too badly.

The first springtime migrants are mostly males looking to be first on choice territory, usually well north of the gulf coast, so they keep pushing north. By mid summer males are migrating south again. The females and youngsters migrate south later in the fall.

I agree - you need multiple feeders for good numbers. And if you are in the deep south keep a feeder up all winter. I had a Ruby-throated show up in January for a little while and had a local guy come out and band it. He put the feeder it was using inside a cage with a trap door; when the hummingbird flew in he pulled a fishing line that shut the opening. He took some measurements, banded it, and then let me release it. Anybody who gets a winter hummingbird should check for local banders (Audubon is a good place to start). Houston and Baton Rouge are well known for wintering hummingbirds, all along the gulf coast really. Ruby-throated are almost the only summer species from Houston east but in the winter they are usually something other than Ruby-throated and some yards that are well established can get 3-4 species in a winter.






(the bander put dye on the head for ID purposes - in case another bird showed up)

For anybody who has ant problems there are inexpensive ant guards that work well. This is one I've used:
Ant guard

So far I've seen 15 hummingbird species in the US (southeast Arizona is best). Places in central and south america (Costa Rica and Ecuador for instance) have incredible hummingbirds. I've seen more than 50 species in Costa Rica (the size of West Virginia).

They are tiny, the band is created mechanically somehow.

This is an example. Mine has a band that starts with L and has 5 numbers following.

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I put a feeder up about a week ago and I already have 3 birds. Give them time. Good luck.

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I had two yesterday afternoon. A male and a female.

Since I started the thread I've been watching a lot closer. I suspect they were there the whole time and I was just missing them. I did borrow one of my mom's feeders and bought another at Wal-marts. So, I'm up to 3 feeders now. I got the two old ones down and washed them good with hot water, a sponge and an old toothbrush. I put about a cup of nectar in each so I don't waste a bunch changing it out.

I'm in hummingbird business now.

Eta: I appreciate the tips from everyone. Keep it going or post pics of your setups/hummingbirds.

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I put about a cup of nectar in each so I don't waste a bunch changing it out.

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If you have numerous feeders and eventually get numerous visitors, you really won't have to worry about "wasting a bunch" of sugar water. Quite the opposite will happen.

If you have the room in your refrigerator for a gallon jug, my suggestion is to prepare sugar water a gallon at a time and refrigerate it. It will keep for at least 2 weeks in your refrigerator. Use an old clean plastic capped gallon milk jug or other.

I agree with the 4:1 sugar water mixture. I always preferred buying 1 lb. granulated white sugar packages because they're so convenient. Maybe slightly more expensive than a 5 lb. package, but you would be surprised how little that difference is. Domino sugar is available in 1 lb. packages, but sugar is sugar so get the cheapest you can.

With 1 lb. sugar packages, it is then so convenient to add two (2) 1 lb. packages (32 oz. total) to 1 gallon boiling water (128 oz.) for the 4:1 (by weight) mixture. Cut heat off when totally dissolved and cool mixture. Of course this mixture is slightly more than a gallon. What I then do after the mixture is cooled is to fill my feeders. The remaining sugar water I can then easily pour into an empty, clean 1 gallon jug and refrigerate.

Next, I will present my Hummingbird Gumbo recipe:

First, you make a roux.



J/K.

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I've got a problem. My neighbor is out baiting me.

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Seems like that would be a synergy type deal.

We have a few feeders at our mountain house in Angel Fire. There are a ton during the spring and summer. They are much louder than I would have imagined. Most of them are small green ones but there is a big orange one that seems to be the HNIC and runs all the green ones off when hes around. No clue what kind they are.

Beautiful morning for bird watching. I've got a couple going back and fourth and chasing each other from feeder to feeder.