I just swapped the YouTube version with one from PhotoBucket. First time I've used that service. Hopefully this will fix any problems viewing. The background behind the feeders is so busy that compressed videos often lose much of their detail making it hard to see the birds.
Seeing that many hummingbirds at one time is just amazing. It's something that will never happen in my area. I guess it's just one of the many advantages of living in California.
Congratulations on your hummers! It's a delight to see them.
Whatever you did, Steve, the red "x" problem has been fixed.
Mama mia, that's a lot of hummingbirds! I have a lot this year, but I don't think there's that many in our entire western Pennsylvanian neighborhood. Aren't you the lucky one!
Glad everyone enjoyed. We don't get much of a bump from migration. These are mostly residential Anna's with some Black-chinned and is typical traffic for this time of year. This video was taken in the afternoon... not during the morning or late evening when it gets rather frantic. Currently using 6 to 7 quarts of 3:1 nectar a day.
I really like the way you started up close, just showing one feeder, then panning back. Very effective! What fun it must be to see so many every day! I get excited if I happen to see one!
Mark, that is a good question and I've heard several theories. When I first started I had several feeders spaced around the house. I had plenty of hummingbirds but usually a male would dominate each feeder keeping the others away. When I consolidated them into the chandelier configuration I now have, there were so many hummingbirds at one place that any male that went on a chase would simply lose his place at the table. Perhaps they learned to stay put and guard just a single hole by sitting at it.
Another theory is that they simply feel safe in large numbers. As long as I don't make sudden movements, I can stand as close as I want and even put my finger under a feeder hole and one will usually stand on it to drink. Either they are calmer than average or totally familiar with me. I would never be able to approach one when they are alone at a flower. In fact, I've never seen two hummingbirds eating from the same flower.
There are limits however. Anna's and Black-chinned seem to tolerate each other and will sit at the same feeder, but when a Rufous or Allen's shows up there is a lot more fighting and whole group is jumpy. I can usually tell immediately if an "outsider" is anywhere around.
That's exactly why I used the term Migrating, these birds are all moving South,so they are not the same birds each day, and therefore not one bird owns the feeders, and they seem to understand that they all must feed to get where they're heading,Make sense?
I don't disagree Allen, just trying to learn. I'm certainly a newbee when it comes to this and just trying to apply human logic instead of hummingbird science.
Here are my thoughts: Agree that many could be migrating birds, but unlike Frank Janzen who lives east of here in a migrating zone, my population doesn't spike wildly during migration times. He probably has a lot more hummingbirds visiting than I do at this time but few if any in winter. During winter I have at least half as many as I currently do. I seldom see anything other than Anna's or Black-chinned visit. During spring, there is probably not an hour goes by without hearing a mating dance, so I'm thinking there must be hundreds of nests among the thousands of trees on my farm. So unless my winter population and their siblings are leaving for greener pastures, at least half are residential birds?
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