Hummingbirds

female hummer

The Ontario Hummingbird sightings map were encouraging! I watched with great anticipation.
Journey North provides North American hummingbird information.

Bloggers to the south posted their first sightings and I knew they were on the way! My feeders up May 2nd, sightings nearby in the county.

I spotted my first hummer May 5th, at 3:00 p.m., and he loved my Orchid cactus. Didn't love me, though, and he took off. They've been a bit shy. I decided to move the back deck feeder to have to in the front. I thought that might reduce the food fights. NOPE! They are still buzzing one another. I only seem to have two, at this point.



One of the bonuses of being at my client's house: is that he has several bird feeders up. This is his feeder. The silly thing saw me, and she zoomed by 2' away alongside me!

I posted some facts (mating, size, feeding babies about them in this previous post. Don't forget all those important ideas about hummingbird food and cleaning hummingbird birdfeeders:

Hummingbird Nectar Recipe

• 1 part sugar/4 parts water
• Boil the mixture for 5 minutes to kill bacteria
• Thoroughly clean the feeder by rinsing with one part white vinegar to four parts water.
• Do this weekly after the feeder is up and going, especially in hot weather.
• Check to see if the nectar is cloudy, which could mean (deadly) bacteria.
• Let cool and store excess in refrigerator until ready to use.
• If the feeder is dirty, add a few grains of dry rice to the vinegar solution to help scrub it clean, as an abrasive.
• Rinse out the vinegar wash by rinsing three times with clear, warm water before refilling with sugar solution.
• Do not add food coloring, honey (which ferments), or artificial sweetener, which has no nutritional value.

National Audubon Society brochure (PDF)