[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Hummingbirds? (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 7/10/2016 9:30:00 PM EDT
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I never really thought there would be any up here in a hardwood forest since there's not much in the way of flowering plants. But those little suckers are all over the place. Wife gave me a feeder to put up. Little shits engage in air to air combat over it. 
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They're very aggressive toward each other. Don't remember if it was here or on a photo board, a member had some fight in front of him, one fell out of the sky. He picked it up and it was bleeding right over the lungs. All we could think of was the other bird speared it.
Later in the summer, there's a large stand of jewelweed near my inlaws' farm-we get a large colony every year, easily a couple hundred individuals. |
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Quoted: Humingbirds are not nice creatures. Even cute little animals would love nothing more than to kill you, if only they were big enough Even cats and dogs are bred/trained to act like babies only to get food. And I enjoy watching the Hummingbird air-to-air combat that happens all the time!  Blue Jays are the militant birds! |
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Yeah, but they AREN'T big enough to kill me.... And I enjoy watching the Hummingbird air-to-air combat that happens all the time!
Blue Jays are the militant birds! Quoted:
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Humingbirds are not nice creatures. Even cute little animals would love nothing more than to kill you, if only they were big enough Even cats and dogs are bred/trained to act like babies only to get food. And I enjoy watching the Hummingbird air-to-air combat that happens all the time!
Blue Jays are the militant birds! hell yes, blue jays can even imitate the sound of hawks to scare smaller birds bad ass fuckers http://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/blog/2015/03/23/julie-craves-describes-why-blue-jays-imitate-hawks/ |
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We have a ton of them here in the middle of the desert. We have a few feeders and have a few regulars that seem to stay around here year round. Quoted:
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I'm just kind of amazed that there are so many of them around in a hardwood forest. We have a ton of them here in the middle of the desert. We have a few feeders and have a few regulars that seem to stay around here year round. But even the desert has more flowering plants than a WV hardwood forest. I'm sort of amazed they are there as well. |
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Cool birds.
Pic thread!!  DSC_8585-Hover by FredMan, on Flickr
 DSC_8556-Chitter by FredMan, on Flickr
 DSC_7779-Flight by FredMan, on Flickr
 DSC_6958-Crop by FredMan, on Flickr
 DSC_1986-Hummingbird Clearwing Knapweed by FredMan, on Flickr
Oh wait... That last one doesn't look quite right... |
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We have a ton of them here in the middle of the desert. We have a few feeders and have a few regulars that seem to stay around here year round. Quoted:
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I'm just kind of amazed that there are so many of them around in a hardwood forest. We have a ton of them here in the middle of the desert. We have a few feeders and have a few regulars that seem to stay around here year round. I need to move my truck though. It's close to the feeder and they shit on it. 
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I had one starring in my front window today and two weeks ago I tried to rescue another from my ceiling of my garage but he
was not cooperating. For some reason they fly into my garage via the open doors and go up into the rafters. Once their they just fly back and forth and do not seem to know how to get out. I was able to rescue one some years back, but sadly I found him dead on the garage floor a few days later. |
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If you're planning a garden or just want to watch them in a natural setting hummingbirds absolutely love scarlet runner beans. They are a normal pole bean with a red flower which hummingbirds flock to. I can be working or weeding in the garden, and they are all over the plants a few feet away from me. The beans themselves are so so, good in minnestrone or something not too good by themselves. |
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I think they fight because it takes awhile for a flower to make another sip of nectar, if you don't guard it some asshole will just zing in there and get it! A bottle brush tree is awesome for attracting hummingbirds. If you plant things to attract them, you will accumulate regulars that will stop by on migrations.
My mom had an Allen's hummingbird hang out last winter here in Louisiana, they only breed along a narrow strip of coastal California and Oregon. We contacted a licensed hummingbird bander and he came over and trapped it along with 3 other species. At the time, it was the only Allen's trapped in LA for the year, I can't wait to see if it returns this winter. |
| Just tonight I washed and refilled my hummingbird feeders. They do fight over the feeders, more so than the flowers they also feed on. Just beyond the feeders I have some ginger lilies that are blooming, I saw maybe 6 or 7 on them at the same time with no fights but the feeder makes them crazy, it is like crack to them. |
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Quoted:
I had one starring in my front window today and two weeks ago I tried to rescue another from my ceiling of my garage but he was not cooperating. For some reason they fly into my garage via the open doors and go up into the rafters. Once their they just fly back and forth and do not seem to know how to get out. I was able to rescue one some years back, but sadly I found him dead on the garage floor a few days later. I'm going to guess you have a red emergency release on your garage door opener. They are attracted to it because of the color, but once the figure out its not food they want to leave. Their nature is to fly up when scared and thats why it won't fly out the huge open door. We've had a few in our garage and I found a way to get them out. I decorated a fake ornamental tree with a bunch of red plastic cups and put it outside the garage. That was attractive enough to get him to fly out. |
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I had one starring in my front window today and two weeks ago I tried to rescue another from my ceiling of my garage but he was not cooperating. For some reason they fly into my garage via the open doors and go up into the rafters. Once their they just fly back and forth and do not seem to know how to get out. I was able to rescue one some years back, but sadly I found him dead on the garage floor a few days later. I've had them try to feed off of that red handle on the rope. I tucked it out of sight, they are attracted to it. I had one stuck in the rafters too, took hours to get him/her out. Hang a feeder low just outside a doorway and it finally made it outside. |
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Those little fighters are all OVER the place and all you need to do is put up a $4 feeder to see them all the time! http://m3.i.pbase.com/o9/72/325172/1/160053633.EItv6kmO.Hum.jpg The young ones look a bit different....
http://m0.i.pbase.com/o9/72/325172/1/161409970.3oeiglSy.Bees.jpg They recommend not having any yellow on the feeder. Red attracts hummingbirds and yellow attracts insects like bees and wasps. |
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The most I've seen at my feeder is 7 hummers last year.
The one I named Big Eddie was pretty territorial and would chase after any others away. The others would tolerate, for the most part, each other. They would be skittish when another one showed up at the feeder and flit around, but they'd all calm down and start feeding again. |
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They recommend not having any yellow on the feeder. Red attracts hummingbirds and yellow attracts insects like bees and wasps. Quoted:
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Those little fighters are all OVER the place and all you need to do is put up a $4 feeder to see them all the time! http://m3.i.pbase.com/o9/72/325172/1/160053633.EItv6kmO.Hum.jpg The young ones look a bit different....
http://m0.i.pbase.com/o9/72/325172/1/161409970.3oeiglSy.Bees.jpg They recommend not having any yellow on the feeder. Red attracts hummingbirds and yellow attracts insects like bees and wasps. Interesting-they all go for yellow flowers here-mainly the jewelweed I mentioned. |
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I have three feeders hanging....they are fun to watch, and don't show much fear. Forget to fill their feeder and if they are locals, they will remind you. Our will buzz right in front of our faces, go back to the empty feeder, and repeate till you fill it! |
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Cool birds. Pic thread!! <a href="https://flic.kr/p/J4am5n" target="_blank">https://c6.staticflickr.com/8/7403/27602757285_738b46f118_b.jpg</a>DSC_8585-Hover by FredMan, on Flickr <a href="https://flic.kr/p/J4aui6" target="_blank">https://c8.staticflickr.com/8/7629/27602784935_7b999ab275_b.jpg</a>DSC_8556-Chitter by FredMan, on Flickr <a href="https://flic.kr/p/HVj8JS" target="_blank">https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7717/27513939826_97b9f127d8_b.jpg</a>DSC_7779-Flight by FredMan, on Flickr <a href="https://flic.kr/p/GRFsQL" target="_blank">https://c5.staticflickr.com/8/7104/26816478684_dfcfa5256c_b.jpg</a>DSC_6958-Crop by FredMan, on Flickr <a href="https://flic.kr/p/JzybdY" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8597/27946706600_429079526e_b.jpg</a>DSC_1986-Hummingbird Clearwing Knapweed by FredMan, on Flickr Oh wait... That last one doesn't look quite right... I have to laugh at the last one. I had a step daughter that didn't like moths. We have those big ones like that that come and hit the moon flower by the house. We told her they were hummingbirds. It worked for a while, but her sister started laughing at her going on about the hummingbirds one night. Then she caught on. 
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Anybody that puts up a hanging nectar feeder, remember to clean it regularly so it doesn't develop mold or other stuff growing in the reservoir. That can kill the birds very quickly.
Some sources suggest once a week, some are saying every few days, not sure if there's consensus beyond it needing to be consistent and often. |
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Quoted: I never really thought there would be any up here in a hardwood forest since there's not much in the way of flowering plants. But those little suckers are all over the place. Wife gave me a feeder to put up. Little shits engage in air to air combat over it. They are a trip to watch...air to air combat... |
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I found the comments about them fighting and being territorial interesting. Last summer I observed something for the first time. A hummingbird and swallowtail butterfly were in the yard at the same time. Hummingbird followed the butterfly around from flower to flower, poking/pestering it. This went on for several minutes. The hummingbird did leave first.
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I need to move my truck though. It's close to the feeder and they shit on it. Quoted:
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I'm just kind of amazed that there are so many of them around in a hardwood forest. We have a ton of them here in the middle of the desert. We have a few feeders and have a few regulars that seem to stay around here year round. I need to move my truck though. It's close to the feeder and they shit on it. They hang out in a pine tree that just so happens to hang over out sidewalk. Don't look up with your mouth open.
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| Couple of years ago, we had nearly 2 dozen of them fighting over a couple feeders. Their numbers have slimmed down to around 6-8 of them in the recent years...but they are fun to watch, and are definitely not afraid of humans. I can walk out the front door and stand within arms reach of the feeder, and they will fly right up and start drinking. |
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Quoted: Was that how it went down? I can't remember. I don't think it hung around for more than a sip. Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: They'll drink the pee from your dick. That's when you know to get your blood sugar checked I don't think we ever got to the bottom of that mystery. |