Enjoying Your Hummers
Mark's Hummingbirds
TIPS & OBSERVATIONS
----CATCH THEIR EYE Use a lot of color in your yard, fake flowers or not......surveyor's tape or even crime scene tape (depending on your neighborhood), whatever, as long as there are bright patches of color (preferably red) that could signal heaven to a high flying hummer. Your deception will be forgiven when they realize your feeders are there. Even if your yard is hummingbird friendly with all the flowers they like, a billboard (so to speak) saying "RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW! ----- THE LARGEST FOOD TROUGH IN THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES!!" won't hurt.
----THEY LOVE WATER AND TAKE FREQUENT BATHS....They seem unable to resist it and end up looking like they have a wet punk hairdo........ so a leaf mister or very shallow birdbath/fountain/waterfall with clean water may work for you (NOTE: if it's too close to feeders it might not get used much...... that's where the fights generally start and nobody wants to get attacked in the shower. "Hummer Psycho" now showing in your back yard!
----SIT OUT WITH THEM......Feel free to sit out and move around them....just not too close and remember to try and be mostly still at first......MOST IMPORTANTLY----AVOID THE TENDENCY TO STARE...staring in the animal kingdom is ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS an aggressive act, the only thing that stares at you may want to eat or attack you. It's best to just act like you couldn't care less (make your movements normally) whether they are there or not. Don't creep, stare, or move very slowly (Hummers & the laws of many states call that STALKING). So, you can look but avert your gaze often. The more comfortable they get around you the more they will come to accept you as part of the woodwork & allow other actions (i.e. pointing cameras, staring a little, even feeding by hand). I can take pictures of some of mine only inches away......problem though----the 'CLICK' & power winder are loud enough to make them flinch so unless I have an extremely fast shutter speed I usually back off at least 2 feet so the sound doesn't startle them.
----DON'T SPEAK UNLESS YOU CAN IMPROVE THE SILENCE Almost all of the sound used by hummers to interact is aggressive in nature. If you speak to them before they are very comfortable around you, it will be taken as an aggressive act. So if you do speak, speak softly and again don't stare. As they come to know you they'll understand that your human sounds aren't necessarily translated to "GET OUT!" in hummerspeak.
----EXPECT THEM TO EVENTUALLY 'CHECK YOU OUT' by flying up to you and inspecting you. Mine have inspected my watch, a Jack in the Box head I had on the cordless phone I was talking on at the time, and other things. They are very curious & don't miss much. Once Sugarbaby (the eldest by a day & a half of my black-chinned girls) flew close to my head and slowly circled my head at eye level inspecting me while hovering. When she got around to my eyes again she was so close I couldn't focus on her. I actually closed my eyes for fear she would "put somebody's eye out with that". Another time she darted from a yucca plant up to my head & I felt a tug on my hair, then right back to the yucca. I could see her swallowing so assume (or let's say hope) that she spotted a wayward gnat that had just touched down on my head. Wearing a bright colored shirt or cap is just inviting investigation.
----THE BUSIEST TIMES AT MY FEEDERS ARE AT DAWN & DUSK .....perhaps at dawn because they are famished from a long night without food and again at dusk tanking up for the long night ahead. They are also more cautious about humans at these times probably because visibility is poor and they can't see you as well.
Lilbaby (black-chinned) is hoping this Anna's female just eats and leaves
----PRETEND YOU ARE A HUMMER GUARDING EVERY FOOD SOURCE IN YOUR YARD If you can place several feeders around where it is impossible to see all feeders (and their corresponding approach routes) from one spot, you will ensure that a single dominant hummer won’t be able to chase everyone else off. I’ve learned that more feeders only work to keep the fighting down if they are hard to monitor at the same time. In a campground in Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona, Arizona we stopped, by chance, to use a rest room and saw a trailer with 3 perched feeders side-by-side that had literally dozens of birds using them. One poor rufous male was making a pitiful and unsuccessful attempt to guard one.....you just had to admire his determination. I wondered why they all seemed to get along so well and mine fight like there is no tomorrow?......I’ve since broken the code and know it’s not the number of feeders you have but rather the number of hummers..........too many hummers and no one bird can dominate. Maybe you’ll be lucky and have a great many at your place.
----THEIR APPEARANCE WILL BE DIFFERENT AT DIFFERENT TIMES. Remember as you get to know the birds that visit your yard that the same hummer can appear very differently depending on several factors. Of course the males and some females usually have colors that will appear dark or black at times or brilliantly colorful depending on how the light hits them and your viewing angle. That’s not what I’m talking about. Sometimes your birds will appear short and stout like a cotton ball and at other times tall and slender perhaps even with their mouth open. Basic rules of thumb are cotton balls are cold and tall slender ones are hot, mouth open--very hot. Other times they may appear all puffed up are when they are trying to intimidate from a perched position (called ‘chattersway’ I think) or in the case of a fledgling--begging for food. Mine also puff up when they want to take bath.
Lilbaby perched on a Murphy's cactus
----LEARN TO LISTEN AS WELL AS LOOK. Sharon, my wife, has mentioned to me that for the years we lived here she never thought there were all that many hummers around. But since I've been telling her how to identify the sounds, she now says when she goes for walks, "They are all over the place!" Don't just stare at the feeders. These birds are actually quite noisy at times, so learn to listen. This has allowed me to see very interesting things in other parts of the yard. While sometimes noisy, they can also be invisible and silent. I'm convinced they can control the loudness of their wings and can 'turn-up' or 'turn-down' that sound depending on if they want to be stealthy or not. When my front yard is not being dominated, Sugarbaby & Lilbaby arrive very noticeably, I hear their wings, and see them in the air. When another hummer is controlling the yard, I frequently will not know they are there until they land on my feeder/finger or spy them in a bush/cactus close by. No sounds at all, no wings, no 'beeebeee' sound, nothing. Consider also that they will sneak into the yard in a variety of ways. Sugarbaby's favorite way of coming to me in a high-threat environment is at low-level, 25 mph 3-4 inches above the ground, then doing a pop-up right at my hand. She leaves that way also. Lilbaby on the other hand is more conventional, she'll sneak somehow to a bush or cactus in the yard and then watch for the opportunity to approach from the safest angle. I frequently won't know she is there until I feel wind from her wings against my arm or back of my head.
MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS
They fight like there is no tomorrow.....this may startle you at first but, I've read that they usually do little harm to each other (at least I hope so). I have had several birds with a few missing neck feathers, perhaps from a fight.
Hummers taking baths are hysterical....usually ending up looking like 'punk' hairdos are very much in style.
They search along the sides of my stucco house picking bugs from spider webs and the spiders themselves if small enough.
I once saw a fight between a Costa's male and what I believe was a Costa's female that spiraled downward facing each other until they got to the ground. Then they both laid there on the ground beak to beak, wings spread, motionless......I guess in a 'Mexican Standoff". After about 30 seconds one flapped, they hit each other and off the fight went. I suppose this could have been courtship behavior since it's not too early for the Costa's but my impression was that it was a squabble.
In November as it got chilly here (Phoenix...a brisk 65 degrees) I saw an Anna's male in our back yard start sitting on a small ornamental weather vane (only about 2' tall). This was apparently to absorb some of it's heat since he only did it after the sun had warmed it up. I also observed this fella inspect the ground on several occasions, hovering only a fraction of an inch above it. I should mention that we have desert landscaping so by 'ground', I mean crushed rock. Finally one day while inspecting the ground he landed and laid flat, wings spread, motionless on the warm gravel. After about 30 seconds he flew over to a dwarf orange tree we have and continued his vigil of the food trough. I'm sure he was just soaking up some heat to warm up.
They eat many, many bugs and cannot survive on nectar alone. Nectar (sugar) is only energy. As you have probably said to your kids or your parents to you, "Sugar is OK for energy but not good for building strong bones, muscles, beaks, and feathers.......well maybe not the 'beaks and feathers' part depending on your family's current evolutionary situation. Watch for them raiding spider webs for trapped insects & the spiders themselves. We get almost invisible swarms of small gnats and Whiteflys....watch for them to look almost spastic darting to and fro in mid-air chasing them.
"Whaadyaah mean?? You a say I canna no sing?"
Yesterday I watched a new behavior to me. An Anna's female was perched at our window feeder when an Anna's male approached. Instead of attacking her from behind which is his norm, he perched at the other feeder position. He then leaned over until his breast was laying on the feeder in her direction. Laying down in effect, he fanned the pretty red feathers of his crown and neck forward and began singing to her. "Speeez.. speeez.. speeez.... Zip.. Zip...... Speeez.. speeez.. speeez.... Zip.. Zip" OK, it's not the most melodic song in the world, "Dick, I give it a 74, I really like the words but it's kinda hard to dance to". I'm sure this was courtship. When she left he followed right behind her. I'm not sure if she was just leaving or they were going to get a room. By coincidence, yesterday was Valentine's Day.
LASTLY REMEMBER THAT YOU CAN BUILD A RAPPORT WITH THESE AMAZING BIRDS
----PATIENCE, PATIENCE, PATIENCE These are solitary creatures. Most of their interaction with other creatures is fighting for food or trying not to be food. It will take time to gain their trust. You must progress at the speed they select and not attempt to force anything on them or else they will show you just what speed is as they are leaving.
Many of my hummers will sit on my finger to drink nectar from a little hand-held bottle. This happens dozens of times each day if I'm outside.
Sugarbaby (read the story) has followed me to a neighbor's house and asked for a drink before I went in. She then found me in their back yard, after I whistled for her, and got another nip.
Both Sugarbaby & Lilbaby have flown right up and gotten some nectar from me when the neighbors, postman, and even a census worker were talking to me.
I give baths to 3 of the hummers, Sugarbaby, Lilbaby, & Fanny, with a 2-gallon garden sprayer I use just for water.
If Lilbaby goes to the window feeder and passes me up on a visit she frequently will leave the yard by aiming at my head and then zipping by my head so close that I can feel the air from her wings as she goes by.
If Sugarbaby is moving from the back yard to front and on across the street without stopping, and I'm sitting out, she'll wait until abeam me or overhead to give me a "beeebeeebee" greeting.
When I open the front door to go outside, it's not uncommon to have to feed Sugarbaby before I even get the door closed even though there are 5 feeders in the yard (3 back, 2 front). At any rate I don't go out in the yard without a feeder in hand. I seem to have become a traveling refreshment center in the yard.