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CAN HUMMINGBIRD FOOD BE TOO HOT?
As I sit down to write this blog, the air temperature in my yard is 94ºF and the heat index (feel like temperature) is 115ºF. When it is this hot day after day, hummingbird fanciers are beginning to wonder if the nectar they are serving the hummers visiting their backyards feeding station is too hot to the birds.
According to some researchers, hummingbird nectar can indeed get too hot. Their studies suggest that feeding sugar water heated to 102ºF can adversely affect the hummingbird’s delicate metabolic system.
With that in mind, some experts are recommending that during hot weather hummingbird food should be kept at or just below 100ºF. This can be difficult when each day we are faced with excessive heat. However, if you are concerned that the nectar in your feeders is too hot, you can do a few other things.
One approach is to use feeders that feature nectar reservoirs made of heavy glass. Since glass is an insulator, it will help keep nectar cooler than plastic feeders. Some folks even wrap their feeders in aluminum foil. Supposedly, aluminum foil will block UV rays and actually reflect 98% of the sun’s radiant heat and, therefore, keeps nectar from overheating.
If you have a shady spot in your yard, you can always hang your feeders there. If this prevents you from watching the feeding activities of the birds swarming around your feeders, you might prefer to employ one of the other options.
We do not know much about this supposed problem. With that in mind, let me know if you think the temperature of the nectar in your feeder poses to hummingbirds in your yard. Also, if you try one of these or other means to try to keep nectar cooler, please let me know.
PROTECTING HUMMINGBIRD FEEDERS FROM FREEZING
For days, the United States Weather Bureau has been warning us that severe cold weather in about to blanket Georgia. If these prognostications prove to be correct, this weekend temperatures will plummeted into the teens. For those Georgians that are currently hosting, or hope to host, a hummingbird in their backyard this winter, this is disturbing news. Obviously, hummingbirds cannot feed on frozen nectar. In addition, if the nectar in feeders freezes the feeders often break.
A hummingbird feeding solution of four parts water to one part sugar typically does not freeze until the temperature dips below 25ºF. If the temperature drops lower, feeders can be taken in at night and replaced the next morning. Another option is to use a light to keep hummingbird food from freezing. Many folks use a 150-watt bulb mounted in a light fixture attached to an alligator clip placed near a feeder to provide the heat needed to keep nectar from freezing on a cold winter night.
If the temperature remains freezing for a few days, you might find that you have to change out feeders during the day. In this way, hummingbirds will have access to an uninterrupted supply of sugar water.
BACKYARD SUET PREFERENCE TEST
Surveys have shown that some 54 percent of those folks that feed birds feed suet. Consequently, it is obvious that we are spending a lot of money on this greasy treat. With that in mind, this past summer, I decided to conduct an informal test to see which of two flavors the birds in my backyard preferred.
During the study, the birds that most often visited my suet feeders were hairy and downy woodpeckers, brown thrashers, mockingbirds, tufted titmice, Carolina chickadees, brown-headed nuthatches, house finches, and northern cardinals.
I compared peanut butter flavored suet to one labelled as berry-flavored. I placed the suet cakes in wire suet feeders hung on a single Shepherd’s hook. Initially I planned to conduct the test over several months. However, after several weeks I ended the test after it became obvious that peanut butter suet was overwhelming preferred to berry-flavored suet. Remarkably, I fed a total of 17 peanut butter-flavored suet cakes before the cake of berry-flavored suet was finally eaten. Since then, I have purchased only peanut-butter flavored suet.
It would be interesting to know if results would have been different if I ran the same test at other times of the year.
However, before I expand by informal survey efforts, I am going to be feeding my backyard bird neighbors peanut butter-flavored suet.
WHERE ARE THE FEEDER BIRDS?
These days one of the main questions being raised by folks that feed birds in their backyards is, “Where are the birds?” We all know that late fall into winter is a great time to feed our feathered neighbors. However, many of us are currently seeing few winter migrants at our feeders.
In my case, those only migrants I have seen are one white-throated sparrow, two dark-eyed juncos, and a handful of yellow-rumped warblers. Other bird enthusiasts have told me similar stories. They also go on to say, the same thing has been going on for a number of years.
There are undoubtedly many reasons why we are seeing fewer birds during the late fall and winter than we once did. For example, weather has a great influence on the timing of the fall migration. The milder the weather to the north of Georgia, the later migrants seems to arrive in the Peach State. However, there is more to it than that.
In addition, since seeds produced by wild plants are more abundant now than at any time of the year, many birds prefer to dine on them while they last.
There is also a much more significant reason behind what we are seeing. A study conducted by the National Audubon Society has found that the winter ranges of many birds have dramatically changed. When the researchers compared data collected on Christmas Bird Counts for the past 90 years, they discovered that the winter ranges of scores of birds have changed in an apparent response to global warming-related changes such as both temperature and precipitation.
These conclusions are based on an analysis of data concerning 89 different species of birds that were collected in
119 different count circles. The biologist found birds are wintering further north than ever before. The same is true for woodpeckers, as well as passerines, and others. This trend appears consistent for species that live in forests, grasslands, mixed habitats, shrublands, and other habitat types.
In other words, if this trend holds true, many of our favorite winter feathered guests will winter far north of Georgia. I suspect we will still see some northern migrants. For example, I was delighted that two dark-eyed juncos are currently feeding in my backyard. While they were once a common sight around my Middle Georgia home, the birds that arrived this year are the first I have seen in my yard in a number of years.
Another species that has been affected by these changes is the evening grosbeak. I have not seen an evening grosbeak in my yard for decades. However, at one time each winner I banded many of these showy, noisy birds in my backyard.
I have heard many say that change is good. However, I think you will agree that this is a change that is definitely far from good.
SNAKE CATCHES HUMMINGBIRD AT FEEDER
Ruby-throated hummingbirds face a host of perils. One of these is being caught by a snake. Over the years, hummingbird fanciers have sent me pictures of snakes coiled around feeders seemingly patiently waiting to pluck an unsuspecting hummingbird out of the air as it flies in to catch a quick meal. Since this unsettling scene is rarely reported, I suspect it does not happen very often. In our case, during the decades my wife and I have been feeding hummingbirds we had never seen it until this past week. Not only did I find a rat snake hanging onto one of our feeders, it was also clutching a hapless hummingbird in its gaping mouth. None of the photos I have received in the past ever captured this.
All of this changed when I stepped out on to on our deck on a quiet late summer morning less than a week ago and spotted what appeared to be a dark lump on the far side of one of our hummingbird feeders. I immediately stopped and tried to figure out what I was looking at. When I advanced closer to the feeder, I could see that the unknown object was a young rat snake. It was so small (three feet long) that it did not have to wrap itself around the feeder.
Once I realized what I was looking at, I turned around and went back into the house to tell my wife to grab her camera and hurry outside to see what was taking place. On the way back outside, I picked up my camera too.
When we returned, we realized that the best view of the snake was from the yard. When we found just the right spot to record the event, we started snapping pictures.
All of this time the snake remained motionless. Finally, the snake moved its head away from the perch that encircled the feeding ports enough for us to realize it was just not waiting for a bird—it had already caught one and was in the process of swallowing it headfirst. Initially all we could see of the hummingbird was its emerald green back, wings, tail, and legs.