Hummingbirds are Migrating
Hummingbirds Come to Flowers and Feeders and Need Lots of Energy for Their Long Migration
May 5, 2006
Hang your hummingbird feeder: the hummingbirds that bless North America in summer are moving north. It's May, and one could appear in your neighborhood any day. In the eastern half of the United States and southeastern Canada, it will probably be the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. In the western half of the continent it might be any one of half a dozen species, depending on the locality.
Hummingbirds, especially males, usually have brilliant plumage - red, green and sometimes purple - and because their wings beat so rapidly, they make an unmistakable humming sound as they pass by or hover, feeding, at a blossom or hummingbird feeder. Indeed, you cannot see the wings of a hummingbird in flight, only a blur of motion.
Hummingbirds need a lot of energy, so a steady food supply is important. They'll visit many types of flowers, but also readily return to a hummingbird feeder filled with sugar-water.
Hummingbird feeders are usually red, or have some red parts to attract the birds. Though recipes for hummingbird food frequently call for red food colouring, this ingredient is unnecessary and may even be bad for the birds. If you want lots of red colour, tie a red bow on or near the feeder.
Here's a basic recipe for hummingbird nectar:
in a clean saucepan, mix together one cup of white sugar and four cups of water. Heat to boiling, simmer for one minute and allow the mixture to cool. Fill your feeder and store any extra nectar in the fridge. Empty and refill the feeder at least once each week, and more often if the weather is hot. If the nectar in the feeder becomes cloudy, replace it with fresh nectar.
A few other tips:
- A shady location is best for the feeder: the nectar will stay cooler and not spoil as readily.
- Never use honey or artificial sweetener in place of white sugar. Organic Gardening magazine (July/August 1996) reports that this could kill the hummingbirds.
- Leave your feeder out late in the fall until you're sure all the hummingbirds have left: even at the northern edge of their range, a rare hummingbird will still be around as late as October, and if you leave your feeder out, you will help the stragglers store lots of energy for migration. In Birding in Metro Halifax (Nimbus, 1996), Clarence Stevens writes that hummingbirds must double their weight before migrating: before they arrive in their southern range, they will lose all the extra weight and more.
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