Hummingbirds at the Feeders
I added another hummingbird feeder to the garden last week, and now I often have three or four of the little buggers hanging around (there are now at least eight in the neighborhood; in the evening I can see them hunting insects around the Live Oak). Yesterday there was a pair taking turns at one feeder:
Here's the female having a drink and occasionally looking up.
Her partner, keeping watch for other hummingbirds (he chased off two while I watched) from the electrical wire.
I looked them up and these are Anna's Hummingbirds. The Chatty Cathy of the hummingbird world. If all hummingbirds made this much noise, they would have to have a very different name.
Interesting note about something I read: it turns out that the concentration of the sugar nectar determines how often the birds will visit the feeder. 1:4 (sugar:water), the concentration I use, is weak, so they come back often but might choose a sweeter nectar preferentially. Researchers used a 1:2 concentration nectar to get the birds interested in a feeder, then slowly reduced the concentration. The sweeter the nectar, the less often the birds fed. Drought-tolerant plants like salvias tend to have a more concentrated nectar, so often hummingbirds will choose the flowers over the feeder, but won't visit them as often.
Interesting, eh?
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posted by ayse on 09/08/06
I also live in Alameda and a hummingbird got into the house. My son took this picture of it.
http://flickr.com/photos/yarn/219394071/
Hi, Janis (we met at a 4th of July party years ago!), that's a great photo your son took. I've never had one even come close to getting in the house (though I guess they could come in through the holes in the eaves). That sounds really, um, exciting. Certainly it would wake the cats up.