It's a boy!

Fred was here. banded my "general". i hope the other one has good food somewhere else.

How'd you get a hummer to sit still???

Larry will have to answer that. fred told DD he trained birds, he was gonna put it in her hand then when he told it to fly it would. actually he tapped her hand from underneath and it flew off. took it about 5 minutes to be back at a feeder once i got them back up. he had been in captivity for probably 20 minutes, getting measured, etc. it was very calm the whole time after he was caught.
it is an immature rufous boy, 2 more adult wing feathers to get in. i think it weighed 3.7 grams. the band was tiny tiny.
DD always acts like she hates hummers, was priceless for me to get a pic of her holding it. (of course she doesn't hate hummers, she likes to bug me).

Congratulations Arlene! How did he catch it?

Amazing, arlene! Sounds like he hypnotized them. I guess you can do that with some animals. Sorta like the possums playing dead when something goes after them. Some songbirds do this to avoid predation by hawks and other raptors.

Did you hold him too Arlene?? That's very neat!!

Fred was joking. It takes magic to get them to sit still in your hand. lol. Actually, once caught, they become very docile. When placed in your hand, especially on cold days, I think they like the warmth of your body and they think they are still being held captive. They will fly off with any quick movement of the hand.

Arlene, now you know why I am addicted to hummers. Wish the other one or ones had shown up. Fred is a really nice person.

Hummers are caught in one of two ways. A feeder is placed in a special cage with a trap door that is manually released when a hummer sits on the feeder. 2nd, nets are used in some cases where a hummer will not go into the trap.

Catching hummers will in no way cause them to leave your yard. They may leave, but they would have anyway.



This message was edited Monday, Jan 13th 2:19 PM

You can hypnotize a chicken!

By the way, the band placed on the hummer is really tiny, it weighs just 1/1000th of an ounce.

Way to go Arlene!!!He's so cute,what did you name him???Won't it be great to tell year after year which one he is??

Arlene, such a great experience for you all. I hope you see this one from year to year or even on a permanent basis. Bet you had a great day today.

Arlene, what an experience. did you get to hold it too?
is that the only picture you took? will he hang around your garden forever now? wow....what a great thrill that must have been.

That is just to cool. Love those hummers!

Yes, i got to hold it. Fred took a pic of me holding it up to my cheek...i think this is the standard pose. this kind of hummer usually hangs out in the rockies i think, and in the west. the county bird guy emailed today, he said mine makes 30 wintering hummers in our county this winter. hopefully he will come back and bring some friends next winter. fred says he'll probably stay another month, which will leave just a few weeks until the ruby throats come back.
CC, i don't think i would know for sure if the same one came back, i think you have to catch them to be able to see if they are banded and you sure couldn't read the number on that band without magnifying glasses.
Thanks, Larry, for setting this up for me.

This is such a neat thing. My mom had a chickadee sit on her finger once, but this is priceless. I'll have to be sure and tell her about it. And they are so tiny. I have caught and held baby kildeer, have a photo of my son holding one. Now, if you don't think that was a sight, a 6 foot tall person zig-zagging in a field running to try and catch a cotton ball with legs. The kildeer almost won, but kid was quicker.

oh this is so great!!! I'm so glad he hung around long enough to get banded, very cool!!

geez... let me say, i was premedicated for my tooth removal, and even this morning when Larry asked the question... i just noticed my hummer feeders are frozen solid! brought one in for a thaw...... guess we'll see. have dead trees and woodpeckers around, hopefully he's found something to eat.

the good news, i got the feeder thawed, refilled, put out and the hummer was there within minutes. the wierd news is he has been at my window feeder several times since, which is just starting to thaw out. guess the other feeder's sugar water was too warm for him.

I never even thought to check my h-bird feeders, course I've not seen any hummers at all...this year. Glad your little guy is okay Arlene!

hummers will feed at feeders that are not frozen solid, but more like a mush. Be sure not to fill feeders more than half full when temps will be below 22 degrees F for more than a couple of hours are you will have a cracked feeder. During extended periods of temps below freezing you will need to change out feeders as they freeze, keep a spare in the house, or what I have done is to place a flood light about a foot from the feeder. I have kept feeders from freezing when the temps remained below freezing for several days at a time.

Larry