I am suffering from an embarrassment of riches at the moment. At this time of year I normally am one of the first to see a Ruby-throat in Central Florida and post it on the migration map. This year I have had hummers non-stop since November. In fact, the only month when I didnt see one was October. Anyway, I have not used feeders successfully before and so I only get glimpses of them as they zoom around. Early last week I took out the binoculars and sat for a while and was able to positively identify one of them as a Rufous. Now I have three or four and I have not been able to see them clearly enough to identify one of them as a Ruby-throat, although Im pretty sure I heard a chirping that was not a Rufous.
It seems that all of you use feeders and are therefore better able to see and enjoy your hummingbirds. I know you have lots of plants that attract them also. My first question is how do you entice them to come to the feeders? I have put two near plants that they are feeding on, but Ive only seen a few visitors and they dont seem to be regulars.
My second question is do any of you have the Hong Kong Orchid tree (Bauhinia x blakeana)? Mine is in full bloom with thousands of blossoms and I suspect it is the one which attracts the first Ruby-throats in the spring. I have seen them flittering around the flowersagain Im not sure if the ones Im seeing now are Ruby-throats.
The last question is that I would like to know which plants you have that are the first to bloom and attract the migrating hummers. Right now my ugly shrimp plant, the cross vine and the Cape Honeysuckle are the favorites--along with the Orchid tree. My Coral Honeysuckle vines are just coming into bloom.
Some hummingbirds, for better or worse, never learn to use feeders, or even if they learn that they exist, prefer flowers. One of the issues that crops up repeatedly during winter banding here in Louisiana is that a certain number of the birds here are just not "feeder birds", and so we're unable to entice them into a trap with a feeder. Sometimes, a vase with flowers from the yard - something highly visible and attractive, like Odontonema strictum (firespike) will tempt them in, but not always.
That said, make sure you're following the basic guidelines for feeders. Keep the feeders clean; I've gradually acquired several of each design I use so that I can have some clean and ready to hang up immediately after taking down a dirty one to clean and refill.
Use plain water and pure cane sugar. Not all "white" sugar is cane sugar, and for some reason, apparently, other types of sugars seem to almost repel the birds - there was a discussion of this some time back. Cane sugar will be so labeled; other types of sugars that just say "white sugar" or "pure white sugar" are probably made from something like sugar beets. We may not be able to tell the difference but based on what people were reporting, the birds may.
Especially avoid red glop - either the powdered mix kind or the concentrate you dilute with water. There's not one bit of evidence that any of these products is better for the birds than plain sugar water, and there's always a chance something in the mix could actually be harmful. Even if they were perfectly safe, I prefer to err on the side of caution - plus cane sugar is far, far cheaper anyway.
Use a mixture that is one part sugar to three or four parts water. A 1:3 mix (25% sugar by volume) is much closer in sugar content to many of the hummingbirds' preferred plant nectars, which can be 30% sugar or more. A 1:4 mix (20% sugar by volume) is often recommended as the standard, but if you have lots of great plants, then the 1:3 mix may give you a better shot at getting the birds to your feeders. Sometimes, I'll use the 1:3 mix at the feeder closest to my window, and a 1:4 mix at ones further away, especially after the birds have gotten used to using a feeder; when they detect the more dilute solution in one feeder, they tend to test the others, and when the "nearby" one is sweeter, they're more inclined to come close to use it.
Certainly, hummingbirds are easier to spot at feeders than at plants sometimes... but you might also look at your binoculars. Make sure they focus quickly, that they're comfortable to hold, and that they allow you to focus on near as well as distant birds. My first binoculars were, in their day, fabulously precision instruments, made in Germany at a time when German optics still were the best in the world. But they also weighed a ton and focused slowly. (Admittedly, when I inherited them from my grandfather in 1979, they were already 25 years or more years old, so we're talking state-of-the-art for the 1950's, not for today.) When I finally broke down and replaced them a few years back with something more contemporary, it opened a whole new world to me for birding.
Tom, I think most of your questions will be answered over the next month just by observing your own garden. The Ruby-throats are much more lanky than Rufous, especially the females. Rufous are little butterballs in comparison, butterballs with pointy tails.
At certain times of year, the big flower times, the feeder doesn't matter much, and the birds will sometimes ignor it completely. But there is no doubt that a feeder or two increases the carrying capasity of a particular piece of real estate, and migration is a good time to hang them. Once a few birds take to the feeder others will see and follow. And as stated above, a few will never visit at all.
Kevin, thanks for responding to Tom, you saved me a whole lot of typing.
Tom, to add a little to Kevin's fine response, I'd say that feeders don't get a lot of usage in my yard except from around Christmas until late February. In the summer, when the Trumpet Creeper is flowering, I don't even see the birds down in the yard very much. They can be found high in the tree that serves as a support for the hearty vine. Below are two threads I started that give nectar values for a lot of the plants we grow. Compare those to the juice in your feeder:
I'd also comment that occasionally, hummers can be trained to use feeders by placing a real flower over the feeding port of some kinds of feeders. In my experience, this method works less than 10% of the time, but sometimes that small percentage of success is better than no success at all. The only Blue-throated I've ever banded was trained by placing an Abutilon pictum flower over the spout of a 'Little Beginner'.
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Nancy L Newfield
Casa Colibrí
Metairie, Louisiana USA
USDA Zone 9
Many thanks, Nancy, Ward and Kevin. I will leave the feeders near flowers and see what happens--cleaning them out every three days.
I saw the mating dance today. I was inside and by the time I got outside with the binoculars he was hidden again. I saw the Rufous clearly a little later. I think it was him. He had been pestering females before, but not really chasing them. Does this mean that the females are likely to nest nearby? If so, this is going to be a great season with both Rufous and Ruby-throats.
If you're in central Florida, your Rufous (if it is one) will be gone soon. The species nests in the pacific northwest, only from northernmost California, up into Oregon and Washington, over into northern Idaho and exteme western Montana, and north into Canada and up the Pacific coast to Alaska. There are no nesting records for the species anywhere east of the Great Plains.
It's possible you do have a Rufous (or Allen's), but even by now many (of the relatively small number that winter in the southeastern US) have begun leaving their wintering territories to head west and north for migration. If you can see brown/rust color in the spread tail, from the upperside, then the bird is likely a Rufous. However, I've seen many a Ruby-throat with a dirty brownish along the sides of the belly that would at first glance make one think it's a Rufous. A tail with no brown in it, however, is a dead giveaway that the bird is not a Rufous.
Another good field mark is that female Rufous typically have some small number of colored, iridescent feathers in the gorget, like a male would, but most of the throat is plain or stippled. The number of colored feathers may gradually increase with age, so that female birds which are several years old may have a fair number of colored throat feathesr. I've never seen a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird with any colored feathers in the gorget at all, and I believe Nancy once told me that she had only seen it once or twice in her entire experience with them as well.
My guess would be that what you're seeing isn't the mating display, but merely an aggressive stance taken by the bird to try to guard its nectar source. The reasons I think this: first, any Ruby-throat wintering in the southeast is almost certainly a bird from farther north, and that it's likely to return to its native area before it begins expending energy on mating rituals. Males usually arrive on their breeding territories a week or two before the females, and establish themselves in a territory before they begin trying to attract a mate. So it's a little early for that.
Second, the numbers of confirmed breeding hummingbirds diminish rapidly as one moves south into the peninsula from the panhandle; the southern borders of Orange, Lake, Sumter and Pasco counties mark a pretty good line below which breeding is far less dense than above (at least per the latest Florida Breeding Bird Atlas I was able to find).
And third, while it's not unheard of that a Ruby-throat might nest in a suburban yard, they normally don't nest near houses, unless you live in a sufficiently wooded area. Their nesting habitat doesn't usually include suburban yards, even though they will come into those areas to feed. However, I'm not sure whether females come into the males' displaying territories to mate, or whether the males go to the females' nesting territories. I'm thinking the former, but Nancy may be able to better answer that.
Tom, in Costa Rica there are many Orchid trees, especially in downtown San José, but the Hong Kong Orchid tree (Bauhinia x blakeana) as you know is one that doesn't produce seeds and it seems to me the hummer prefer this one!
A friend has a huge one in her garden, and I was lucky to be visiting last week when here gardener REALLY pruned it! I brought home large branches, which in turn was cut into smaller pieces and placed in our 'vivero', with hope that at least 50% will take!
My other ones are about 5ft. tall, and have just a few blooms each, were all grown from seeds that I 'got' downtown!
Kevin, as a generalization, the female Ruby-throated begins the nest first. Then, she seeks a male on his territory, which is usually based on a nectar source.
The male holds his territory by performing large 'U'shaped display flights. Interlopers usually flee at the sight. Females that are receptive to the male advances remain perched and the male moves in for a closer, more intimate display - a small arc, given facing the female, maybe 3 feet wide.
The female flies off but not far. Copulation takes place on neutral territory. Then, the male goes back to his territory and the female to hers. Other species may practice variations on the same theme. Ruby-throateds may behave somewhat differently in other areas. However, I doubt that birds that spent the winter in one spot will just begin nesting in the same location. I think the male aggressive display is a signal that the 'sap is rising' and he is near ready to depart.
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Nancy L Newfield
Casa Colibrí
Metairie, Louisiana USA
USDA Zone 9
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to be visiting last week when here gardener REALLY pruned it! I brought home large branches, which in turn was cut into smaller pieces and placed in our 'vivero', with hope that at least 50% will take!
