Friday, November 6, 2015

Hummers again

Those of you with long memories might recall that I once before wrote about humming birds back in March 2012. Philip and I continue to be fascinated by these curious little creatures.  Over the years here we have had various humming bird feeders and have planted a range of flowering plants that we hoped would attract them. From a very barren lifeless garden, two years ago, we now have a garden that's filled with flower and foliage and in turn, butterflies, lizards and birds. And the humming birds are the highlights.

We had one humming bird feeder that constantly dripped sticky red fluid and attracted a single very territorial humming bird that spent most of its time chasing others away. Earlier this summer we purchased two new feeder of a different type as an experiment to see what would happen. The results have been amazing and we now have a garden full of humming birds living in reasonable harmony. Some days, particularly early morning and at dusk the air is alive with probably 10-20 tiny birds all weaving around, pausing to feed and then zooming around the yard - fascinating. Sometimes there will be four or five feeding on a feeder all at the same time. Although difficult to see in detail because  of their fast movement, we see flashes of different colour, suggesting we have different species represented. Can anyone explain this recent change to gregariousness?


  1. Could it be a seasonal difference?
    Costa's hummingbird [which I think is what you show in the picture] have male maintained territories in the spring.
    Is your picture of a family group? Are the less colourer ones juvenile?
    I have followed the advice of countless gardening books to plant various plants that the books say 'plant this and the hummers will fill your garden'; but alas no matter how rich the nectar source the hummers just won't come!


  2. Yes - I think quite possibly seasonal. Family group - possibly, although there are definitely different species present. Some smaller maybe juvenile ones and some with less coloring - probably females but I really don't know! Fascinating!