Hummingbird trivia
Spring is in the air and so are the hummingbirds. Within the next month or 2 they will be flying north again from their warm winter playgrounds. Hummingbirds migrate from as far north in Canada to South America. That is quite a large feat for such a small bird.
I have seen hummingbirds make very tiny nests in the finer leaved branches of redwoods in California. They love trumpet shaped flowers and we had a very large trumpet vine that spanned the length of our backyard when we lived in the San Francisco Bay Area years ago. That vine would be covered in flowers from spring to late fall and the hummingbirds just loved it. If you got too close you might even be dive bombed by a few little birds.
The hummingbird is a very fearless little creature. It will attack much larger animals and my husband was even attacked once when a hummingbird jabbed him in the leg. He was apparently too close to a nest.
Did you know that there are over 50 species of hummingbirds? I think that I can only identify about 4 of them. You might want to get a book on hummingbirds like the book below.
Hummingbirds will visit a hummingbird feeder up to every 15 minutes if you have one. Last year our hummingbird feeder had a waiting line. When one hummingbird would finish and leave, another one was ready to take its place at the feeder. Even though there are 4 feeding stations on the feeder those little birds were still territorial. I have got to remember to stock up on hummingbird food when I see it on sale. Last year I went through 3 boxes of hummingbird food for just one feeder.
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January 24th, 2010 at 1:00 am
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by llmsattractionm: Hummingbird trivia - Blog Archive - All the Creatures: Spring is in the air and so are the hum…
January 24th, 2010 at 10:22 am
Thanks for the mention on Twitter. I had no idea that this little blog was THAT popular.
January 24th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
[...] Hummingbird trivia - Blog Archive - All the Creatures allthecreatures.org/wildlife/hummingbird-trivia.html – view page – cached Spring is in the air and so are the hummingbirds. Within the next month or 2 they will be flying north again from their warm winter playgrounds. Hummingbirds migrate from as far north in Canada to South America. That is quite a large feat for such a small bird. I have seen hummingbirds make very tiny nests in the finer leaved branches of redwoods in California. [...]
January 26th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
The Ruby-throated hummingbird migrates farther south than any other North American hummingbird, as far as northern Panama in southern Central America.
About 340 hummingbird species are currently known to science. Of these, 16 nest in the U.S. and 5 nest in Canada.
All you need to fill your feeder is 1 part white granulated sugar to 3 or 4 parts water - much less expensive and more convenient than commercial hummingbird “food” or “instant nectar” and free of artificial dyes, preservatives, and other additives that may cause problems for tiny hyperactive birds that can drink 3 to 5 times their weight in a day.
January 27th, 2010 at 8:39 pm
Thanks for correcting me, Sheri. I had no idea that there were that many varities of hummingbirds. I imagine that new ones are found every year.