Anyone else have an unusually large number of hummingbirds this year?

[ArlyA]

A delightful sight of the red sky and buzzing hummingbirds along the Little Bay de Noc shore. Taken in the UP of MI!

 

[QRTRHRS]

A few photos of "hummingbird central". I put some unistrut on the aluminum roof over part of my deck. The wire frame is from a hanging plant. They like to roost on it between dogfights. A suet basket with cotton balls is for nesting material. The nearby treeline is visible to the right of the overgrown bush.

I forget what kind of bush is next to the deck. A Chinese privet or something. The hummers love it as do bees and butterflys when it flowers.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I stocked up yesterday on sugar at a close by Amish market.

 

[sixdogs]

We had a slow start to the year so I decided to move some feeders around. We re-located and added feeders and tried to mimic what QTRHRS showed in his prior post #1202.

We had a pickup in demand and our few birds a day turned into maybe 25 birds a day. They liked the new locations and are emptying two half-filled feeders every day or two now. Maybe they feel safer whatever but we're getting more birds and we like that.

Note is that we change their food every other day in this heat. I think bacteria can build up quickly. FYI

 

[Runner]

I was watering a patch of new sod the other day with a sprayer on a garden hose and a humming bird flew up and was drinking from the spray. Never seen that before. Otherwise, has been a really slow year for humming birds around here.

 

[ponytug]

I was watering a patch of new sod the other day with a sprayer on a garden hose and a humming bird flew up and was drinking from the spray. Never seen that before. Otherwise, has been a really slow year for humming birds around here.

Here that happens pretty much anytime I have a water spray going. It never loses its charm or fascination for me.

All the best,

Peter

 

[jyoutz]

Most years the hummingbirds are fighting over the feeders. This year I’ve only seen a few and the feeders are still mostly full after being up for 6 weeks. I don’t know where they are this year.

 

[nctox]

Well, we are nearly the other side of the country from you, but we also have noticed a significantly fewer number of hummers this year. Maybe it's just an off year for hummingbirds.

 

[jyoutz]

Well, we are nearly the other side of the country from you, but we also have noticed a significantly fewer number of hummers this year. Maybe it's just an off year for hummingbirds.

I believe they winter in Mexico and Central America. So something must have happened over the winter. Maybe immigration detained them at the border?

 

[kenmbz]

We have the usual number of more than 2 but probably less than 4.
Never seems to change.

For the feeder, we boil the sugar water, clean the feeder well and the solution can last for a week or more before any issues.
Usually empties before we have to change it.
In 8 years, we've had basically the same number of birds.
More than a few times they have come out when I was watering to play.

 

[QRTRHRS]

Our numbers are still way low. The other day I counted maybe nine birds. I stopped by a friends garden center today for a hanging flower basket or two. I picked out the only one with red flowers when he said give me five bucks for five somewhat sad looking hanging baskets so I brought them home. I think with some water that they will come around.

I spaced them out with feeders between which seemed to garner some attention.

 

[ultrarunner]

Looks like this year it will again be a no show…

Pre pandemic it was hard to keep the feeder full…

 

[goeduck]

We had a slow start to the year so I decided to move some feeders around. We re-located and added feeders and tried to mimic what QTRHRS showed in his prior post #1202.

We had a pickup in demand and our few birds a day turned into maybe 25 birds a day. They liked the new locations and are emptying two half-filled feeders every day or two now. Maybe they feel safer whatever but we're getting more birds and we like that.

Note is that we change their food every other day in this heat. I think bacteria can build up quickly. FYI

Good job!

 

[jyoutz]

Looks like this year it will again be a no show…

Pre pandemic it was hard to keep the feeder full…

Last year it was hard to keep the feeders full, but this year almost none.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

The rufous were really late showing up this year, but things picked up with warmer weather.

 

[sixdogs]

After we added more feeders in new locations to what others had success with, our hummingbird count picked up considerably. We figure the new spots were more desirable because they offered more shade or were in locations with better cover or bushes nearby. I don't know but wish I did. The birds visit the new feeder and then hit the other ones as well and brought their friends and young.

Anyway, our uptick in birds is now a multiple of that and we are getting two feeders each going empty daily from a 3/8 to 1/2 full initial fill. From a season start of a few birds we're seeing 25+ at the window feeder and that's just what we're seeing. FYI.

 

[Cycledude]

One of my brothers has had th most Hummingbirds I’ve ever seen anywhere for a lot of years but for some reason there ain’t many this year.
Few years ago he went through 400 pounds of sugar, this year he says maybe 25 pounds.

 

[goeduck]

One of my brothers has had th most Hummingbirds I’ve ever seen anywhere for a lot of years but for some reason there ain’t many this year.
Few years ago he went through 400 pounds of sugar, this year he says maybe 25 pounds.

400 pounds would be what? over a half gallon a day if he had birds all year if my math is correct? If he has them 6 months it'd be over a gallon a day? You sure it wasn't 40 pounds?

 

[Larry Caldwell]

The number of birds has picked up, and we have a whole squadron of rufous hens, so it's likely we will have more. We finally have enough to clear out the gnats and mosquitoes on the deck, so sitting outside in the evening is very pleasant.

 

[Sigarms]

It seems many are noticing the same thing my wife and I are noticing... this year seems the count is pretty low so far. We could go through 2 feeders in less than a day. Currently 1 is lasting a couple of days. I think the most I've seen at the feeders this year was 3 or 4, and it was only 1 time early in the morning at first light.