Hummingbird Heaven at my house

XLSweetTea · Aug 23, 2009

wreath

i use to put a wreath on my kitchen door - every year the robins would build a nest, lay eggs, hatch them, teach them to fly out. Next year, same beautiful story would unfold all over again

One christmas I put a wreath on my truck's front grill. Left it on till spring, just got too busy. One day the robin's built a nest in it!! Not sure how long i drove around with it in there but if there were any eggs they were long gone!

Jean S · Aug 25, 2009

When do we need to take the feeders down? I usually take mine down Mid-September. Is that too late? I know if you keep feeding them they wont leave in time before the cold weather gets here and then they may not make the trip back to the warmer climates.. Where exactly do hummingbirds go in the Winter?

KDsGrandma · Aug 25, 2009

Jean S said: ↑

When do we need to take the feeders down? I usually take mine down Mid-September. Is that too late? I know if you keep feeding them they wont leave in time before the cold weather gets here and then they may not make the trip back to the warmer climates.. Where exactly do hummingbirds go in the Winter?
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That's a myth. Hummingbirds leave when it's time to leave, whether or not there's a feeder up. Occasionally a hummingbird will stay around later than usual, and they need the help from humans even more when their natural food sources give out. I leave mine up until I don't see any around for a week or more, and that's usually late October.

Hummingbirds migrate in response to hormonal changes, which are triggered by decreasing length of daylight; nothing you can do will make them stay too long, so it's not necessary to stop feeding them to force them to go south. On the contrary: they will need to fatten up to nearly double normal body weight to survive the journey, and thus appreciate your feeder more than ever up until literally the last minute before they depart.

I recommend continuing to maintain at least one feeder for a week or two after seeing your last hummer of the season. Sometimes an individual bird can't migrate on schedule, due to illness or injury: these late migrants in particular will appreciate having a reliable source of food at a time when few natural flowers are still in bloom. There's no need to risk your feeder freezing solid, though, so you needn't get carried away with the concept.

EXCEPTION: If you live in the southeastern U.S., leaving your feeder out until at least Thanksgiving may attract one of the atypical Rufous or other hummingbirds that are reported more and more often each winter.
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http://www.hummingbirds.net/about.html#when

KDsGrandma · Aug 25, 2009

XLSweetTea said: ↑

i use to put a wreath on my kitchen door - every year the robins would build a nest, lay eggs, hatch them, teach them to fly out. Next year, same beautiful story would unfold all over again

One christmas I put a wreath on my truck's front grill. Left it on till spring, just got too busy. One day the robin's built a nest in it!! Not sure how long i drove around with it in there but if there were any eggs they were long gone!
Click to expand...

Ummm, probably house finches, not robins.
http://www.4042.com/4042forums/showthread.php?t=25270&highlight=house+finches

See post #13.

KDsGrandma · Aug 25, 2009

Jean S said: ↑

Where exactly do hummingbirds go in the Winter?
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Some answers to migration questions.

Southward Migration

Unlike the Rufous and other hummingbirds of the western mountains, where freezing nights are common even in summer, Ruby-throats aren't well adapted to cold temperatures; they have a tough time below the mid-20s (F), and don't enter torpor as regularly as their western cousins to conserve energy. To avoid the cold, and the scarcity of food when flowers stop blooming and insects stop flying, they go south. Some adult males start migrating south as early as mid-July, but the peak of southward migration for this species is late August and early September. By mid-September, essentially all of the Ruby-throated at feeders are migrating through from farther north, and not the same individuals seen in the summer. This is difficult to see, since they all look alike, but has been proven by banding studies. The number of birds migrating south may be twice that of the northward trip, since it includes all immature birds that hatched during the summer, as well as surviving adults.

For a hummer that just hatched, there's no memory of past migrations, only an urge to put on a lot of weight (see above) and fly in a particular direction for a certain amount of time, then look for a good place to spend the winter. Once it learns such a route, a bird may retrace it every year as long as it lives. The initial urge is triggered by the shortening length of sunlight as autumn approaches, and has nothing to do with temperature or the availability of food; in fact, hummingbirds migrate south at the time of greatest food abundance. When the bird is fat enough, it migrates. It's not necessary to take down feeders to force hummingbirds to leave, and in the fall all the birds at your feeder are already migrating anyway. If you remove your feeder, birds will just feed elsewhere, but may not bother to return to your yard the next year. I recommend continuing to maintain feeders until freezing becomes a problem.

Many people notice that adult males migrate earlier than females, because in the last month or so there may be no birds with red throats at feeders. However, remember that immature Ruby-throats of both sexes look much like their mothers. Young males often have a "5 o'clock shadow" of dark throat feathers in broken streaks, and many develop one or more red gorget feathers by the time they migrate. Immature females may have much lighter streaks in their throats, but no red.
There is evidence that fewer Ruby-throats cross the Gulf in fall than in spring, most instead following the Texas coast back into Mexico. Perhaps the hurricane season is a factor, and the genes of many birds with a tendency to fly over water were lost at sea during storms.

We still have many more questions than answers about hummingbird migration. Until technology provides radio transmitters small enough for a 3-gram hummingbird to carry safely, banding is the best tool to collect data on individual birds. But since only a few dozen people in North America - almost all of them amateurs like me - are licensed to handle hummingbirds, progress is slow and the odds of recapturing a banded bird are very low.
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http://www.hummingbirds.net/migration.html

cvfdcaptain · Aug 25, 2009

migration must be on!! i couldnt keep my 2 feeders full last week! this week, not 1 sighting yet!!!

dangerboy · Aug 25, 2009

Jean S said: ↑

When do we need to take the feeders down? I usually take mine down Mid-September. Is that too late? I know if you keep feeding them they wont leave in time before the cold weather gets here and then they may not make the trip back to the warmer climates.. Where exactly do hummingbirds go in the Winter?
Click to expand...

there are hummingbirds in north carolina all year round! you can leave them up....see my links above

Kent · Aug 25, 2009

cvfdcaptain said: ↑

migration must be on!! i couldnt keep my 2 feeders full last week! this week, not 1 sighting yet!!!
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Got at least 8 very hungry ones still swarming around the feeders.

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Hummingbird Heaven at my house

XLSweetTea Well-Known Member

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