All Quiet at the feeder

Well it looks like all the birds are gone for the winter. In fact they stayed longer, but then they left in a hurry. They were here one day 20 birds or so. Then the next day there was only one. Then in a couple of days he left as well. Then a few days later the weather turned cold and has been cool for about a week now. The fact that there are no stragglers makes me wonder if winter is going to show up early or be worse this year. Will be waiting to see. Well I won't be writing much between now and next spring when the cute little hummers return, which is usually mid to late Feb. or March.

Hummingbirds headed south for winter.

Well they stayed 3 weeks longer than in previous years but they have finally moved on southward headed for their winter home. Wish I would have had time to take some pictures or video cause it was really busy this year. Also a couple of the birds got quite chubby, close to the size of a ping pong ball, almost hard to believe those little wings could lift the large body of the real chubby birds.
I will keep fresh nectar out for a couple more weeks just in case there are a few stragglers.

Swarms of Hummingbirds

Migration is in full force and lasting longer than usual. There are around 30 birds competing for the 3 feeders. Sorry I haven't had time to get any current video. But check the archives for past video where there were 40 plus birds.

More birds starting to arrive.

Well they sure were slow in showing up this season but there are more showing up every couple of days. Ever since that year where I had a lot of birds around the feeders most all of the neighbors now have feeders so the birds are a little spread out now. But that sure doesn't slow down the action. They chase each other up and down the street from house to house. I would estimate there are probably close to 20 plus birds in the neighborhood at this time and will probably continue to grow as we close in on the migration. The migration is probably occurring in the northern US. The migration here where I live in mid Alabama usually kicks into full swing around the last week of August and lasts about 2 weeks into September.

Birds arriving

Well the birds are finally arriving and as usual a couple have staked their claim to the feeder and are defending it. Because of the extreme heat this year the birds are showing up mainly in the evening a couple of hours before sundown. It is fascinating to watch them, they look like small jet planes in a dog fight as they chase each other off the feeder.

Birds arriving late this year.

So far this year I have only seen 2 hummingbirds. It appears that for some reason they are arriving later this year than last. By this time last year I had at least 6 plus birds visiting my feeder daily. Be patient they will be arriving soon.

Time to put out those feeders.

For those of you in the southern part of the US, it is time to put out those feeders if you haven't already. Usually I don't fill my feeders too full this early in the year because the volume of birds is so light. So what I do is mix up the nectar, fill the feeder only halfway then store the rest in the fridge for the next week. Haven't seen any yet but I'm sure it won't be long because the weather here has been really mild for about a week now. If you start seeing birds in your area leave me a short comment about where in the country you are and when you saw the first, and if you recently took a good picture of one, send that to, david@humbirdguy.com, and I will post some.

Hummingbirds Return.

This year with the long winter weather hanging on, there is a good chance that the return of the hummingbirds will be significantly later this year. Last year I saw my first bird before the end of Feb. This year my best guess is I probably won't see the first bird till mid or late March. But, hey, still a good idea to start preparing now by stocking up on Nectar, maybe a new feeder or replace an old one. Start shopping for those flowers for your garden. They will need to be planted soon as well.

Keeping in mind that I live in mid Alabama, so if you live further north it will be later than that.

Also if you didn't see many birds last year I would suggest scrolling my previous post on my tip for the optimum location for your feeder.

Taking Video of your hummingbirds

Well as you might have noticed my video is okay but could definitely be of much better quality. But hey it's not too bad. So definitely you don't need an expensive camera to video them. Because the camera I used is rather simple, I had to have the camera really close to the feeder for the closeup video. So close that it took a few minutes for the birds to check it out to make sure it was safe before going back to feeding. Now of course it would be great if everybody could afford the best in cameras but not all of us including me can afford those. So if you want a great and simple to use and inexpensive camera here is the exact camera that I used to film my video.

My secret for attracting such a large amount of birds.(video)

This video shows huge amount of hummingbirds, and you are only seeing 2/3rd's of the birds! There is still a third feeder off screen to the left and it too is busy. Now after some of the people in my neighborhood saw how many birds I was attracting, a lot of them went out and bought feeders. They started popping up all over the neighborhood. Funny thing is none of them could ever get the volume of birds I was getting. For 4 years running now I have had pretty close to the same amount. Well this is no coincidence, for the first time I am revealing my secret, hopefully no one in my area reads this. Yes, I do use the food that I recommend, but, I mix mine just a little richer I only use about 2/3rd's of the water it tells you to use when I mix it up. Now originally I was using the proper amount and had an average amount of birds showing up, only when I started mixing it a little richer did the volume of birds showing up just exploded to what you see on this video. Also I can't stress this enough, change out your feeder with fresh nectar every week! Whether it is empty or not! Cause hey, they don't like stale food any more than you do. Enjoy the video.

Flowers that attract hummingbirds

The flowers that I have in my garden are Gladiolas and Zinnia. Sorry I don't have any pictures to show. My garden is off on the side of the house around the corner from the feeders. The ideal place for the flowers would be around the feeders. Hopefully this year I can create a garden around the feeders to better accommodate the birds. Even with the not so ideal location I still had a steady flow of visitors to the flowers. There are so many types of flowers that attract hummingbirds I strongly suggest you do as I did and get a book on the types of flowers that will grow in your region of the country and then just chose a few that you like. You should start your research now, because most flowers will need to be planted in the next couple of months in order to bloom in time. If you click on the highlighted words in this post it will take you to some of the books that I have.

Finding a good location for your feeder.

Hummingbirds, as with all birds, are very cautious. The best place for your feeder would be in the middle of a garden that is full of the flowers that hummers like, trying your best to keep the feeder up high by using a Shepherd Rod Hanger, 91" BLK SGL HANGER/HOOK. Also would be a good idea to have it secluded in a bush or small tree much like I have done. When I had my feeders out in the open I had only a few birds coming around, but when I put them in the tree like you see on my videos, well you can see and hear for yourself. The volume of birds multiplied by almost 10 times when I gave the birds the protection of the tree. I mentioned flowers, don't worry in future posts I will elaborate more on the types of flowers that really attract these birds.

Times of year to see hummingbirds

In different parts of the country it happens at different times of the year. But the basic rule is they start to migrate back to the north starting in mid Feb. and stay through early Sept. when they start their trek back southward. NOTE: you will tend to see the heaviest volumes of birds in Aug. because they are fueling up for the long flight south. Also you will tend to see heavier volumes of birds the further south you live in the US. I have found a great map to illustrate the migratory habits of hummingbirds in the US. Just click here .