Hummer caught on camera

This year is the first time I have ever fed hummingbirds. The feeder is right outside the window and I have had a wonderful time watching them. It didn't take very long for one bird to claim this feeder as his own. The little guy sits on the canna plant and drives away all other birds including a finch who came to perch above the feeder. When I took the photos, I was focusing on the little bird and only realized what he was doing when I reviewed the photos.

Pic 1. Guarding the feeder

This message was edited Sep 16, 2010 9:50 PM

Pic 2. Saw a stink bug

Pic 3. Close inspection

Pic 4. Is it an enemy or is it lunch?

AWESOME!!!!!

WOW Awesome!! is right. What great shots. Watching the hummers is a lot of fun. Sure is surprising how loud those little birds can be. LOL

What a GREAT series of photos!!! Hummers are such fun to watch but so tiny, you can miss a lot of what is actually going on! You captured it all so well...

So - WAS it lunch? :-)

Thanks for posting these.

donner---

I tried, for the first time, lthis Summer to attract some Hummers...No luck!
Had the feeder out--decked in red silk flowers--NOTHING!

OK! I know one is supposed to have some REAL flowers----will try again next year.

I read in "The Sunpapers" that we all need to brace for a Stinkbug invasion into out homes.
Seems the population of this--and many other bugs--has ballooned this Summer due to
the protective snow covering last Winter.
It suggested we spray all cracks and crevices around doors and windows to prevent their entry.
There are now several such products available--the best known one is "Home Defense"---but there are several others on the shelves now as well.

I have seen them on my Brugs--the seed pods of my Hibiscus--on my Tomatos, etc.....

Will spray soon! The weather is cooling off and all the little buggers will be looking for winter homes....
Mice too--if you have any around!

Gita

Gita, I don't understand why your garden failed to attract hummingbirds. The reason we put out a feeder was that hummingbirds kept coming to the canna. We didn't think they were able to reach into the canna flowers and decided to put a feeder by the canna. Guess what, you were the one who gave me the canna at the spring plant swap! How can your garden not attract hummers!!

An article I read said that hummers leave Maryland in September. I hope the little guy who is hogging the feeder won't miss his trip by hanging around the feeder for too long.

Gita don't give up. Put your Hummer feeder back out next year. It took a couple of years before my parents were able to lure a few into their yard. This year they came in droves.
Donner, Don't worry the Hummer will go when it is ready, you can leave the feeder out as the Hummers farther North may find a traveling snack. Having a feeder in your yard won't encourage the Hummers to stay past their time.

Donner and Holly---

I was being selfish--and hung my Hummer feeder from the egde of my Patio roof--because I wanted to see them...

My Cannas are on the other side of my house.....IF they visited there--I would not have seen them.

I could hang the Hummer feeder in my Yuk bed--where I have 2 Butterfly bushes and Helipsis, and dayl;ilies...
Also--a bird bath.....Would that help?????

Thanks, G.

Gita hang or sit a pot of red flowers early in the spring near the feeder. A pot of red petunas is a real draw for them. No sense in putting it where you can't see it. We did a good job of drawing them into my parents yard and she has a very small bed.

Holly,

I would like to attract them by planting something in one of those 2 big pots on either
side of my patio pole. The pot towards the patio side has my small, Piilu Clematis in it.
Partial sun only there....as my Maple shades this area....
This year, I planted a Mandevilla there, but it is pink and bloomed too late.
Wonder how the red ones would do????

What would be good there? Red, about 2'-3' tall???

See the two pots, back-to-back at the support pole?
Then I would hang the feeder above the pot.....

Thanks, Gita

Gita, I do see them go to other flowers although they are known to be attracted to red flowers. I am encouraged by the hummers' visit this year and plan to grow red Salvia for them next year. Salvia will need a lot more sun than what I see in your photo though. Penstemons tolerate some shade and there are several varieties with red flowers. There is a variety with burgundy leaves and red flowers that likes quite a lot of shade.

Hummers enjoy and use allmost all of the hanging pot flowers. Make or buy one. Hang it six to ten feet away from the feeder. At any point when several hummers are using the hanging plant pinch the flowers off. Bingo they will almost always go straight to the feeder. They should go to the feeder without such games. They have to have nectar once in about every fifteen minutes. If possible hang where the morning sun warms up the area first.

It is important to make new nectar once a week. Stale nectar can make them ill. If your neighbor is offering fresh nectar and yours is stale....you loose every time.

doc--

No one in my immediate vicinity feeds birds or gardens....I am the only one!

This pot does get sun in the early afternoon--just later in the day it gets shaded
as the sun goes behind my big tree.

I have purple Bee balm. How would that work? I could mix in something red....
Petunias might be too low--unless I hang a HB with them right above this pot .

I imagine Hummers like things a bit up in the air--yes?

NO biggie if I don't get any takers....just my fancy--since i bough this Hummer feeder on clearance....

Gita

I have a Humongous Red Lonicera (honeysuckle) vine and the little buggers just love that. We always seem to have a pair or a threesome of hummers and they always make a nest & have a youngster or two but I have never found the tiny nest. I have a hunch they put it in the lonicera bush. Donner, what shutter speed are you using for those brilliant fast speed photos?

Honeysuckle is just full of nectar which the hummers seek. They will pass up a feeder for it any day of the week.

Buttoneer, I only used a little digital camera. That's why the photo quality is not as good as I would like. I took the photos from inside the house. The windows can use some cleaning too, LOL!!! We still have an old SLR with all sorts of lenses, but we haven't touched it in years :-(. We are thinking about getting a better digital camera though.

I will look out for a red honeysuckle next year.

I had 2 feeders up that the hummers kept fighting over. We bought 2 more and it didn't help. Went back and they were out of the kind I had been getting, so I got one shaped like a wine bottle. #5 . They were starting to spread out a little, but still had bullies. Was in the store again and they had some more feeders like I had, so got 4 more. Finally, after #9, we had enough feeders up to take care of the bullies and also the ones that were more sociable. Probably had 30 or more HB's here this summer. They were GREAT! It was our first year here so I wasn't sure what to expect.

WOW, Crit! That's amazing. How far apart did all your feeders wind up to be? I only have one, so can't compare, but I've read that you should put the feeders almost out of sight of each other to keep the territorial little guys from fighting all day. Obviously, you probably didn't do that, so it's encouraging!

What fun for you in your first year of feeding hummers! Thanks for posting.

Amazing pic, Crit!!! I never saw more than one bird on the feeder because the little bully chased off other birds who came near. I had 2 feeders out, but they were probably too close to each because the same bird guarded both of them. I will definitely get more feeders next year.

Have not seen a hummer here for three weeks. I will take down the feeder the next nice day.

I let the bullies have the feeders they were originally guarding. They were hanging under the edge of the awning at one end of the pool. I then put more feeders on the other end of the pool on the privacy fence, about 4' apart, and up the other side. It seemed the closer together they were, the harder it was for the bullies to bully them, 'cause there were so many they were outnumbered.

Food for thought. Might the intent here to feed more prevent survival of the fittest philosophy? Said another way might the never ending battle at the feeder be part of flight training for the trip home? Yet another consideration. Might the diet of sugar water be all wrong for the overall health of the hummers? Might the sugar water be addiction which replaces healthy nectar with white sugar water?

There is a major ornathology center near Ithaca, New York, by acres just, for the birds or Sap Sucker Woods. Cornell university center is where I first ask these questions. The best answer I got was the public loves to see the hummers. The presence of our feeders helps us finance the center with feeder sales. Roger T Peterson was there during one of our visits. I got his book signed but no chat on these questions. That was at least fourty years ago. I can't imagine any intelligent consideration would ever be made considering feeder and book sales that are dependent on the presence of the birds.

Gita,

Sometimes the birds seem to be absent in an area even though others nearby see them all the time. The first year we lived here we didn't see any, even though a cottage we own about 1000 feet away had numerous birds that were crazy about a flowering mimosa tree. The next year we had a few flowers and two feeders and a couple of birds came, This year there were so many, I was able to count seven at two feeders, even though I suspect there may have been more. My eyes just couldn't focus on all of them to count them all at once time. Something I found important is that the feeder must be changed, even if the birds don't consume all of it, every couple of days. The birds seem to sense when the sugar water is 'stale' and stay away. Then when my DH goes to fill them, the birds fly around his head because they know what he's up to. I hope you get your birds next year for sure.

Doc, you make a point worth pondering. Even the docile ones seem to quibble and quabble about the feeders. Chasing one another around and such. Could it be that maybe we are feeding the weaker ones and making them healthier and into a bird that can not only make the trip down, but also back next spring to revisit us? Since I did not have a lot of natural nectar for them with a lack of flowers, I made sure they got a supplimental energy source. Next summer I plan to have LOTS of flowers that they can get their nectar from, and maybe not need so many feeders.

Playing Devil's advocate here.

It has always seemed to me that white sugar base liquid might be counter productive. It has been an interesting ponder. I know of no other animal that would be fed sugar to make them healthy. The fattening of America is largely based on an excess of carbs.

My feeder is down, cleaned and put away for the winter.

I took down most of mine 2 weeks ago. I need to take down the ones I have left up, except the wasp and honey bees are feeding on a couple of them now. I thought ..... if they like it, why not leave it up for a while. Same thing with the fruit 'n butterfly brew plate. I'm leaving it up for a while too. I just couldn't get the 'umph' to do much this weekend. Was going to take down all but those 2, but decided heck they aren't hurting anything! lol