Author: Hummingbird

What is Hummingbird Banding?

Have you ever wondered what is meant by the term “banding”? Many people have heard of the term but are not entirely clear on just what the term means. It is my hope that this post will give you a better understanding of just what “banding” means.
 
“Banding" is when a hummingbird is temporarily trapped and a tiny numbered strip of aluminum is wrapped around one leg. The bird is trapped only long enough for the “banding” to take place and no harm is done to the hummingbird as a result of this process. This method is currently the only way to identify individual hummingbirds. Individual species are studied by gathering data on large numbers of individuals.
 
Banding studies suggest that individual birds may follow a set route year after year, often arriving at the same feeder on the same day. It isn’t currently known for certain if any individual bird follows the same route in both directions, but there are some indications that they do not. Further research is needed on the matter before any definitive conclusion can be reach on this subject.
 
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Hummingbird Food

What Makes a Perfect Flower to a Hummingbird?

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The flower must provide a large amount of nectar with a substantial sugar content to support the demanding hummingbird life style. The sugar content should average about 26 percent; amazingly enough this is double what you get in a soft drink.   The nectar should not be too concentrated and sticky because hummingbirds rely on a long tube-like tongue to draw nectar into their mouth through what is known as wicking action or the force that brings water up a straw when you stick the straw in a glass.
 
These flowers tend to have red or orange petals or bracts, which help make them easily noticeable to the hummingbird at a long-distance away and thus case the hummingbird to take notice of it.
 
 
The flowers are often long and tubular and therefore a long narrow bill and tongue are required to extract the nectar.
 
The flowers often hang down and point downward thus providing a hovering bird has the easiest access to it.
 
 
These flowers generally have long stamens that will cause the pollen to be deposited on the forehead of the unsuspecting bird.
 
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Hummingbird Food Hummingbird Videos

Hummingbird Flowers

Don’t let the fact that you have a limited amout of space, like a small deck , keep you from trying to attract  hummingbirds, because it can be successfully done.  You just have plant the right types of flowers to attract them.   This video shows them eating from Fuschia triphylla, ‘Lady in Red’ salvia, Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia), and calibrachoa (Million Bells).  

I found it quite interesting to see the hummingbirds up close and feeding from so many flowers.  Usually, they feed so quickly that it isn’t something you can often fully appreciate.  Enjoy!

Do Hummingbirds Molt?

I was recently asked, "do hummingbirds molt?’  Yes, they indeed do.  It is my hope that the information below will help inform you on this subject. 

By the time fall migration comes, many hummingbirds are relying on worn-out feathers. They will begin to molt anytime from September to November, while out of view of most U.S. and Canada hummingbird watchers. Each feather will take several weeks to regain its size and shape.

 

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Hummingbird Feeders Hummingbird Food

What Not to Use in Your Hummingbird Feeders

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When wanting to make your own nectar solution, you should never use honey, artificial sweeteners, or food coloring when making nectar.  These may be harmful to the birds. 
 
Honey should not be used to feed hummingbirds because it attracts bees and favors the growth of a black fungus that causes a fatal liver and tongue disease in hummingbirds.
 
The only type of sugar that should be used when making your own nectar is white granulated cane sugar because this is very similar to flower nectar and won’t harm the hummingbirds. Never use brown sugar, honey or artificial sweeteners!
 
Red dye or food coloring is unnecessary and also thought to be unhealthy for the hummingbirds. There is a great deal of debate on the issue of whether or not the food coloring is actually harmful to hummingbirds or not, but my personal opinion is why even take the chance of harming the hummingbirds that you are trying to attract.
 
  • Red dye has no nutrient value so why feed it the hummingbirds.
  • All red dyes are categorized as "xenobiotics" the same as other pollutants and stress the metabolism accordingly [Kuno & Mizutani, 2005].
  • Red dye masks fermentation making it difficult to assess the freshness of a mixture, encouraging users to risk keeping the mixture beyond its safety margin since it looks okay to them.
  • A properly designed feeder attracts no additional hummingbirds by coloring the water, so it is a useless additional ingredient. They are attracted to red flowers, not red nectar, so the feeder, not the feed, should be red. In comparison tests of dyed & undyed nectars offered side-by-side in identical feeders, the non-dyed was visited more often.
  • The potential carcinogenicity, DNA damage, lowered of fertility rates, increase in tumors, lethargy, & other health problems associated with mammals given doses of Red40 far lower than are in manufactured nectar powders, are not worth risking on such small birds.
 
The bulleted items listed above came from the following web address: http://www.paghat.com/reddye.html
 
Most feeders on the market to day have red on them somewhere and this is enough to attract the hummingbirds.
 
Making your own nectar solution is simple and easy to do, but make sure when you do so that you don’t accidentally harm the hummingbirds that you wish to attract. Remember, you should never use honey, artificial sweeteners, or food coloring when making nectar. I hope that this post has helped to inform you on this subject.