Hummingbirds in the Winter

HummingBirds

My wife Stephanie has enjoyed the hummingbirds visiting her in Lakeland this summer. She has had to work to keep the feeders full of food for them.

I took her last weekend to the Holly Springs Hummingbird Festival which celebrates hummingbird migration..thru Holly Springs. There were hundreds of hummingbirds there, and experts who catch them and tag them to study their habits.

Following is new info that Stephanie took notes on:

You don't have to buy hummingbird food. Just mix 1 part sugar and 4 parts water with hot water(don't need to boil) and put in the feeder. You don't need to color it. It will keep in the refrigerator. The expert advised mixing a gallon at a time.

Some people have saw the hummingbirds getting fatter at end of summer and have even mixed sweet and low to help them diet. Never do this. They automatically gain weight because genetically they need the weight to make the migration around thru texas or across the gulf of mexico.

Some people believe that you need to take down your feeders in the fall, or the hummingbirds won't migrate, because food is still available. This is false. They have such a strong urge to migrate that nothing will stop it.

The experts advised to keep at least one feeder out for the winter. Various species of hummingbirds migrate from the North to this area and you can get hummingbirds visiting in the winter. You only need to change your bird feed liquids every week or two in the winter.

Another bit of advice is to keep the feeders at least 5 1/2 feet above the ground. One of the biggest killers of hummingbirds is cats.

He advised to always put an ant trap plastic thing on top of the feeders to keep ants away.

I asked him what happens to the hummingbirds who are migrating across the Gulf (which takes them 18 hours of flight) while there are tropical storms and hurricanes. He said all those birds in a hurricane are killed, but only those migrating those couple days; but there are millions and millions of hummingbirds and this doesn't affect their populations, and the migration covers a month or more.

He said that hummingbirds are very territorial, and they do this to mate and survive. Hummingbirds know the people they are getting food from and will sometimes go to the windows to see what they are doing, and looking for their food. Sometimes the young ones will do silly things.

Hummingbirds will sometimes fly 5 or more miles to get to your feeders.

Interesting creatures.