Hummingbirds For Mom

Multiple Hummingbird Feeders

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Our yard was always full of multiple hummingbird feeders. Mom wanted the hummingbirds to have plenty of opportunities to feed and she believed that having the multiple feeders in the yard would attract more of the hummingbirds that we so enjoyed watching. The are indeed advantages to having multiple hummingbird feeders throughout your yard and and this post will discuss them.

My mom seemed to know that the best way to prevent a single hummingbird from monopolizing her feeders was to have multiple feeders and place them out of view of each other around our yard. She would also group a bunch of feeders together so that no single hummingbird can possibly defend each hummingbird feeder.

Another thing that mom would do was to hang our nectar feeders at varying heights. It is interesting to note that different hummingbird species will favor and defend different hummingbird feeders that are at varying heights. I’m not sure if mom actually knew this or not or if she just liked the way the feeders looked when hanging at the varying heights. Also, some hummingbird species like to feed at heights of 12 to 15 feet, while others typically feed on low growing flowers and will prefer feeders placed closer to the ground. Our feeders were placed at 3 different heights which seemed to help to reduce aggression between hummingbirds.

There are advantages to placing multiple feeders around your yard. This is something my mom seemed to fully understand and I truly believe it to have been one of the many reasons that our yard was a hummingbird haven. If you are interested in attracting lots of hummingbirds to your yard, why not try placing multiple feeders around your yard? You and the hummingbirds will be glad that you did so.

Hummingbird Videos

Bird Watching:Hummingbird Migration Routes

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Are you someone who has always believed that every species of hummingbird migrates? If so, I’m here to inform you that this is simply not true, because not all species of hummingbirds migrate. Have you ever wondered where the hummingbirds that do migrate every winter go on their migratory journey? If so, you will discover this and more about hummingbird migration while watching this informative video.

Dear Mom Hummingbird Food

Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds Entergy Use

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Here in southeast Texas the most commonly seen hummingbird is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Like most hummingbirds, they seem to always be feeding or in flight. Even though this is not true it caused me to wonder just how much food does a Ruby-throated Hummingbird need to survive a typical day. The answer may surprise you as much as it did me.

As amazing as this sounds, on a typical day, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird only requires 10 calories of food to survive. Can you believe how few calories they need to make it through the day, mom? That seem like an incredibly small amount, because you would think that they would burn far more then that per day with their seemingly high, non-stop activity levels. Sugar water and flower nectar will provide this in the form of carbohydrates or they will gain this in the form of fats or protein which is gotten through the eating of tiny insects or spiders.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we as human beings could survive on only needing 10 calories per day? You would have loved that mom because then you could have gotten away with cooking far less often. Also, we would certainly all eat far less per day and therefore likely loose weight far more easily.

Now on a personal note, I must apologize for not having made a post in the past few days. This was due to the fact that I was suffering from an extremely bad migraine headache that struck without warning and forced me to remain in bed until today.

Dear Mom

Myan Ledgens of Hummingbirds

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I recently discovered something about hummingbirds that I never knew before. Do you mom or anyone else have any idea what that discovery might have been? I would be astounded if you or anyone else had any idea whatsoever about what I recently discovered, so I will just have to share it with you and anyone else who will read this particular post. What I discovered is that Native American mythology is full of of stories about hummingbirds, but the same cannot be said of European and African American myths, fairy tales and legends. Why is this? It is said to be because hummingbirds are only found in the Americas.

According to one Mayan legend, the sun is a hummingbird in disguise and that the moon is a beautiful women that the sun is trying to court.

Another Mayan legend is about a hummingbird piercing the tongue of the ancient kings. The Mayans believed that by pouring blood on their sacred scrolls and then burning them that their devine ancestors would appear in the smoke.

Many Native American cultures have had their own myths, legends and stories about hummingbirds. My mom always loved discovering new or unusual bits of information, so I am sure that this post would have fascinated her and I hope that you too will find it interesting. This post focused on a few of of the Myan legends about hummingbirds, but there are so many other Native American culture’s with their own myths, ledgens and stories about hummingbirds. Maybe that might be the subject of a future post.

Dear Mom Hummingbird Food

The Impotance of Feeding to a Hummingbird

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I can remember sitting on the back porch of my parents’ home watching the hummingbirds feed. It often seemed that the hummingbirds would never stop eating and my mom and I would often wonder if the hummingbirds would overeat. I have since learned that although hummingbirds do eat a great deal, about five to eight times and hour, they do not eat until they are fill at every opportunity. I have also discovered a great deal else about the importance of proper hummingbird feeding that I’d like to share with you.

Mom, the hummingbird will use an enormous amount of energy each day and will therefore require one and one half times its body weight in nectar to meet its daily energy needs. The nectar on which the hummingbird feeds will be digested in only 20 minutes and pass entirely through the hummingbird’s digestive system. With the enormous amount of fluid that a hummingbird will intake each day, a hummingbird’s daily urine output may exceed 80 percent of its body weight per day.

So mom, even though it often appeared that the hummingbirds would overeat, I now understand that this isn’t going to occur because of the enormous amount of energy that the hummingbird must expend, how quickly the nectar is digested and the amount of urine that is excreted per day.