By Karn Stiegelmeier FOLBR Board Member
Surprisingly to me, we still have many hummingbirds hanging around our feeders. This summer we have gone through a record amount of sugar. We have filled feeders since a few arrived in late April, and have gone through more than 50 pounds of sugar now. The rufous hummingbirds arrive late and seem to be all gone now, while mostly young broadtail hummingbirds remain.
My theory is that because the flowers had such a hot, dry year, fewer than ever before have been blooming this summer, so the hummingbirds have had to depend on us feeding them all that sugar water we create from sugar harvested in tropical places and delivered to our grocery stores up here. I’m thrilled to see even more hummingbirds than previous years.
Our broadtail and rufous hummingbirds spend their winters in tropical places, then migrate north to Colorado and all the way up to Alaska. The prettiest birds are the males with bright colors, including iridescent air bubbles inside their feathers that reflect light, rather than just chemical pigments as we see in most colors. They are also amazing to watch doing their mating dance, flying up high in the air, then diving straight down at high speeds, then turning sharply at the bottom and heading back up. Their tail feathers create some sharp whistle and buzzing sounds. All this behavior is very attractive to the females.
The males leave first for fall migration south. We start seeing mostly females and juveniles in August. The males don’t have anything to do with building nests, incubating eggs and raising the young. They just show off their fancy colors to entice the females to mate. There is some research that says they know where to return to each summer to find the food and nesting spots from the prior summer. I’m convinced the young hatchlings remember and return to our house because we seem to have more each year. They live all of 3-5 years and after hatching, they have about 20 days to fly and feed on their own.
The recent hatchlings have had all of 30 to 60 days to gain their full weight of .1 to .2 ounces and prepare to travel south about 3,000 miles to their winter homes. They don’t have to go to school to learn how to navigate 3,000 miles south. They don’t get to follow their phones. They don’t even get to follow their parents. They have an innate sense of direction and an internal map in their DNA.
To help them in these final days, be sure to keep your feeders full of clean water and sugar — no red dyes, and of course, bring the feeders in at night to prevent bears and raccoons from trying to get a treat. They are usually ready for food before I’m ready to get out of bed, but putting out feeders is first on my list. Some birds we see this time of year could be stopping by on their way from Alaska or other northern sites, and they may be running out of energy to continue their long journey south, including a 500 mile, nonstop journey across the Gulf of Mexico.
Send them off with a sweet treat for energy, and let’s be hopeful they will do well in their southern homes and return to more flowers here next year!