Feeding Genghis
Jul 08 '03
The Bottom Line Hummingbirds will add life and sparkle to your garden, if you pay attention to a few simple details.
I got interested in hummingbirds many years ago, and for a long time, hung a lone nectar feeder off my front porch, right in front of my dining room window. I'd enjoy watching the little guys swoop down and feed. Somehow, the amounts they drank were so minute that there was never any direct evidence that the amount of nectar was being diminished, but suddenly, a day or two later, the feeder would be empty.
Life went on in this vein for a while until the day I sat watching dreamily as the hummers danced and swooped around the feeder. Suddenly, though, it occurred to me that I was watching not nature in all her glory but a pitched battle between two equally tiny and determined combatants. One would feed, the other would swoop down and knock him out of the way and feed, until the vanquished would attack with all his 1-ounce fury and drive him away. Occasionally, they met in mid-air, two minute warriors slugging it out over MY bird feeder.
Fascinated, I watched for half an hour or so, until I realized that the two fighters had been joined by a third, who snuck in and supped while the two doofuses engaged in a huge battle over a feeder that someone else had already claimed.
Hummingbirds aren't very big and don't make much noise, comparatively speaking, but these guys were squeaking and squealing loud enough for me to hear inside my house. And they weren't giving up, either.
So off I went to my local mega-store and bought a second feeder. Filled it, hung it about four feet from the first, and sat down to watch.
Sure enough, the battle was on. Bird #1 would feed at feeder #1 until #2 came along and attacked. #2 would chase #1 away and feed at feeder #2, until #1 - or was it #3? - returned and drove him away. These little pigs actually went back and forth between the feeders, claiming both, when no one else was around.
They may be lovely little flying jewels, but they have the collective soul of Genghis Khan. Nasty little buggers.
My casual interest grew into somewhat more than that but less than a full-on obsession. And my collection of nectar feeders grew, as I attempted to ensure enough to stop the fighting. Hah! I may as well have tried to stop the Gottis from whacking the Gambinos. Ounce for ounce, hummingbirds have got to be the most territorial and aggressive creatures on God's green earth.
So here's what I learned about feeding them.
First and most important: Don’t begin feeding them unless you’re committed to doing it consistently. The birds become dependent on your handouts and if you suddenly stop, it works a real hardship on them, especially in the winter, if you’re lucky enough to have non-migratory hummers around. If you have more than one feeder, consider staggering the dates you fill them, so they don’t all run empty at the same time. But for heaven’s sake, keep some nectar in at least one of them all the time.
FEEDERS
Make sure your feeder has red on it somewhere. Hummers are attracted to red, and feed primarily from red flowers, when available.
Hummingbirds like to feed from tubular flowers - foxglove, salvia, and the like. So if your feeder has some sort of tubular feeding port, so much the better. They will go to one with simple holes in the base, but only after trying the ones with tubular plastic flowers, or glass or plastic tubes. Their beaks are superbly adapted for tubes, and that’s what they go to first.
If you have lots of bees around, consider getting a feeder that has a bee-guard at each feeding port. Most of them come on feeders with tubular plastic flowers; the bee-guard is a small yellow plastic grid that fits inside the flower. It keeps the bees from getting to the nectar. With some of my non-bee-guarded feeders, I’ve found dead bees floating in the nectar.
I always buy feeders that have a perch for the birds. I like to think that I’m giving them a break, and they use up so much energy hovering that it seems almost a waste to hover and feed at the same time. They also tend to stay a bit longer when they perch.
Glass feeders are best. You can clean them with much hotter water than you can use on plastic, it doesn’t scratch, and the glass they use in hummingbird feeders is very heavy. One of my feeders once fell two storeys; the plastic base shattered but the glass bottle remained intact.
Some feeders have glass bottles with pinched waists. I really like them, because when my hands are wet, they’re easier to grasp and hold. All else being equal, that’s the style I go for.
NECTAR
You can use commercial nectar mix or make your own. I’ve done both. The commercial stuff is a lot more expensive, though.
If you decide to make your own, mix one part granulated sugar with four parts hot or warm water. Stir until completely dissolved. Add a few drops of red food coloring. Bring the nectar to room temperature before putting it out for the birds. I use superfine granulated, in the green C&H box, or Baker’s Sugar. When I can’t find it, I put regular granulated sugar in the Cuisinart and whirl it for about a minute - voila - superfine! Store any unused nectar in the fridge.
Not everyone agrees about the importance of using red nectar. You can buy the powdered mix either tinted or clear. But red is the color that attracts the hummers, so there needs to be red somewhere on - or in - the feeder. Also, if you mix your own, the tint fades after a while, so the color is a good clue that it’s time to change the nectar.
NEVER use honey, molasses, or maple syrup. They may be natural products, but even the merest drop of undissolved honey can stick a tiny hummingbird's beak together and introduce bacteria, and it will speedily starve.
Likewise, don't even think about using artificial sweetener. Yeah, who woulda thunk it would even be necessary to mention that, but believe it or not, there are fools out there who have tried to feed their buddies with Equal and then wondered why they were starving to death.
FILLING AND HANGING THE FEEDER
I don't fill my feeders all the way, but figure on the base holding about one-half to one cup of nectar, depending on size. So put enough in that when you turn it right-side up, the nectar will still be visible. It comes to about 12 ozs. per feeder.
I fill my feeders by standing them in the sink drain and filling them with a funnel. After screwing on the base, I carefully rinse the whole thing, still upside-down, to make sure there's no dripped nectar on the outside.
After I've filled it, I carry it outside and flip it right-side-up at the last minute. I learned to do that the hard way; you haven’t lived until you’ve tried to get red-tinted nectar out of the carpet.
You'll probably have to "burp" the feeder before you hang it, because in the process of flipping it, air bubbles get trapped against the feeding ports in the base. If you see your birds ignoring your feeders, it's likely that they tried to drink but couldn't get past the bubble. So you can stab each port with a skewer or long toothpick, or gently tip the feeder in the opposite direction of each feeding port until you see a little bubble rise in the bottle. You'll spill a small amount of nectar, so do this outside.
Ants love hummingbird nectar, so I always hang an ant trap between the hook and the feeder. It's a simple red cup with a hook at the top and one underneath. I fill the cup with water and a drop of dish soap, and hang the feeder from the hook on the bottom. I refill the ant cup every time I refill the feeders. They can be hard to find, but I've had good luck on eBay. Do a search for "ant trap" or "hummingbird feeder."
Once the ants get into the nectar, you'll have to pitch it and refill. The birds won't come near it.
Hang your feeder in the shade, if possible. Give your birds a break from the sun, and preserve your nectar from fermentation a bit longer.
If the nectar remains for more than a week in winter or a few days in summer, pitch it and refill. It ferments pretty fast, with all that sugar. Who needs drunk hummingbirds?
CLEANING THE FEEDER
Each time I empty and refill my feeders, I wash them thoroughly with hot soapy water, rinse them out completely, slosh some white vinegar in them, and then rinse that out very carefully. That's why it's best to get a feeder made of glass rather than plastic; you can use hotter water in them.
It’s much harder to clean the bases because most of them don’t come apart. So I very carefully soak them in hot soapy water, scrub as much gunk as I can get at with an old toothbrush and a tiny bent bottle brush from my old bulb baster, and rinse like crazy.
Two of my feeders have flat - as opposed to tubular plastic flower - bases with yellow plastic daisy shapes over the feeding ports. Those daisies break off easily; I think the plastic gets brittle in the sun. Replacement parts are easily available at pet stores or from the vendor, www.perkypet.com.
ODDS AND ENDS
I have one very bold hummer who flutters a few feet from my face when I’m in the gazebo with the paper and the feeder is empty. He chirps as noisily as one ounce can muster and lets me know that this is unacceptable, and he’s right. I read an article once by a man whose most faithful customer used to zoom from the feeder into the space between his face and the newspaper he was reading, and do that repeatedly until the man looked up and noticed the empty feeder. Then he would hover by the door until the man came out with a freshly filled feeder. You don’t mess with these little Mafioso.
I’ve bought just about every style of hummingbird feeder on the market. Some of them are works of art: beautiful glass in various colors and shapes, sturdy plastic, bottles wrapped in various metals like copper, bottles with stoppers and tubes, cut-outs of leaves and flowers... The variety is endless. And I confess to being easily tempted. Right now I have my eye on a metal wire tray with four square mottled glass bottles in it, each with a tube feeding port sticking up. It sells for $50 at a nursery near me. There’s also a mobile with an abstract hummer at the top and three small glass teardrop bottle feeders balanced beneath it. $45. And I succumbed a few weeks ago and bought a lovely glass teardrop wrapped in copper wire with a copper base, that the birds wouldn’t touch.
You can spend as much as you want, but after years of feeding these little marauders, I’ve found that the ones they like best are the simplest. I’ve used Perky Pet feeders, and I have a new Opus “Garden Jewel” feeder that the birds seem to like. (I’ve written reviews of these feeders, but there isn’t yet a place on the site for them, so I’m working with the CLs to get them added. Stay tuned.) I pay about $12 for my feeders.
The features I look for include, in no special order:
• red on the base or cap
• capacity
• tubular feeding port
• bee-guard
• ease of cleaning
• perches
• contoured or pinch-waisted bottle, for easy grabbing
Most of the artsy-fartsy feeders lack at least one of these features. The less expensive ones I’ve been using have lasted me for many years. The hummers don’t care about the fancy glass or metalwork; all they want is a feeder they can drink from comfortably.
The nasty little Genghis Khans of the bird kingdom thank you!
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Penguinlady
|
 in Hotels & Travel |
 - Top 200 |
|
Location: I'd rather be in Antarctica
Reviews written: 625
Trusted by: 279 members
About Me:
Many thanks to Travel CL SurgRN911 for speedily adding Stuff for me - she's GREAT!
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.