I've been wanting to hang a hummingbird feeder in our yard for quite some time. I visited Home Depot and selected an elegant one with copper trim, elegant fake flowers and a delicate design. I filled it with the proper mix of ingredients as specified by the Audubon society and hung it in an easy-to-find location.
The hummingbirds didn't touch it.
I did a little research and discovered that this garish, plastic piece of junk is popular with hummingbirds.
I bought one, filled it with the recommended sugar water, hung it on a tree and the hummers are quite happy with it.
Look, let's stop kidding ourselves. Hummingbirds are quarrelsome birds whose diet is effectively an endless stream of Mountain Dew. They are attracted to large, crude objects decorated in bright, primary colors. If they could put plastic pink flamingos in our yard, they'd do it. They're tasteless, gaudy little showoffs with penchant for cheap drink and hideous ornamentation.
And I love the fact that I've found a way to make the little guys happy. :-)
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| If hummingbirds took vacations, they'd go to places like this. |
5 comments:
We have a couple simple red plastic hummingbird feeders. The tank is clear. At the old house, they were all over at least one of them. It was hung outside the window of my office on a Shepard's hook. It was nice watching them. The feeder has 4 slots for feeding. Only 1 gets used at a time, because, the birds fight. One bully would chase the others away. There was 2 others that formed a pack, one would lead the bully on a chase while the other would be able to feed.
Here at the new house, I don't get to see that so much. The bird feeder is out at the other end of the house.
Ants and bees are also attracted. I try spraying the Shepard's hook with ant killer. It works for a while. But still, weekly you have to take the feed apart and clean out the dead.
Yeah, hummingbirds are no connoisseurs of fine art. They just want something gaudy that gives forth with the juice.
What kinds of hummers are you getting? We only get ruby-throats here, but I understand that there are other species that come up the west coast.
MN, we've been using this style of feeder:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005F5NGYW/
It has an "ant moat" at the top, and keeping that filled with water keeps the ants from coming down the hook. The red base also comes apart in two pieces to make it easier to clean. It works pretty well, and has enough slots that there will sometimes be multiple birds at it at once. Not without fighting, of course, but what can one expect from hummingbirds?
We have this one
Hummingbird Feeder 32 oz. Plastic Hummingbird Feeders for Outdoors - Humming Bird Feeders - Perch with 10 Feeding Ports - Wide Mouth for Easy Filling/2 Part Base for Easy Cleaning https://a.co/d/eIHRkTH
I guess it has 8 or 10 slots. And it comes apart at the bottom for easy cleaning. We need to replace one, so that one looks good.
Not sure why I was anonymous
Tim, I've got it hung at the house that's being remodeled, so I'm not there to observe. There's one character that cheerfully sings to me when I come over, in that raspy, Rod Stewart voice that they have. He's way up high in the tree and it's been murky here of late with the rains. When we move back in about two months, I'll be sure to get some photos and share them here.
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