This is for the birds (and watchers).

@sammydog01 Yeah, I see some feathers. Basically, they use a little bit of this and that – twigs and leaves, for sure. Not sure what all of the white is, but I read somewhere that they use spider webs to bind it together and make it elastic so that the nest will expand and grow with the babies.

Keep in mind that the nest is the size of half a golf ball and the eggs, which can be seen at times, are a little larger than a Tic Tac.

@moonhat Here’s a picture of a different nest.

@lseeber Maybe you can have feeders at your new place?

I’ve tried to attract hummingbirds at my house, but I’ve had no luck. A couple of my friends have an active community, so I’ve been able to watch the little critters a few times.

Do you know that hummingbirds eat 1/2 their weight in sugar every day? But I’m guessing they use up a lot of that energy pretty quick. It seems like they never rest.

@Barney I can, but it took us 20 yrs to build up the amount we had and that was mainly because of my husband’s dedication to it and he’s gone now.
I’m trying to decide if I would still be that dedicated. If you really want to build up a community, it does take dedication. There were many many times that we would be somewhere and have to go home because we knew the feeders would go empty. If they go empty for long, they will leave. I had filmed this little bit while hubby was out of town and wanted to know how they were doing.
This is just one feeder near the back door. Figure there were at least 5 more, usually 6 with at least the same activity.
Patio door feeder

@Barney @lseeber I like the way they vie for spaces.

@lseeber Wow, I’ve heard that hummingbirds are extremely territorial, but these little guys seem to be sharing pretty good (with some exceptions).

Aw, I can see how you are going to miss your birds. I hope you can at least set up one feeder at your new place.

My friends’ feeder has only had three, maybe 4 birds at the most. I can’t believe the number you had.

@Barney Actually, they are very territorial and when there are just a few you’ll see it more clearly. When there are this many they seem to hold a few second truce every now and then because they all know they will quickly die if they don’t feed quite frequently unless in a state or torpor. If you stand still they will come and sit on your or feed from your hand. They are VERY inquisitive. Generally they get a long and ‘some’ of the experts will tell you they are not violent but we witnessed 2 of them kill another so, they can tell me that til the cows come home and I’ll tell them to take a hike. Hurricane Katrina wiped out a HUGE population because they were in migration when it hit and they fly over the gulf. Our population dwindled but we’d been building it back up. You have to have the feeders up when they return or they will go elsewhere. Don’t put red food coloring in the nectar and don’t put more sugar in… it will kill them.
Yeah… I’ll prob put up a feeder or 2 and see how it goes. They are fun to watch.

@Barney @therealjrn Yeah… kinda like a bunch of wallflowers at the school dance, lol.

@Barney @lseeber @therealjrn When I lived in California the hummingbirds at my feeder would hover and take turns. In Virginia they chase each other off. Maybe it’s the ruby-throated ones that are dicks. I bet they stop by unless they find someone else with a feeder that’s always full.

@Barney @sammydog01 @therealjrn Yeah… mine are all ruby throated. If you saw the vid, you’ll only note 1 or 2 males. The females generally will take turns, it’s the male of any hummingbird breed that is really territorial (and that for mating purposes). Each male generally will stake out a half acre and decide which females he will allow. He will try to get rid of any other males. Having feeders in relatively close proximity of one another changes things.
We only ever had 1 winter over and took care of it all winter long. That was really fun and special.

@lseeber How did it manage to survive your winter?

@Barney They go into torpor at night in order to survive (and they are completely vulnerable to preditors at that point) and must have sustenance immediately when they awake. My husband was always up at 4am so he always had a fresh feeder ready to switch out with the other one if it froze and the bird had it all to itself. On our covered porch (the one the bird usually did NOT use) we had a heating pad on warm with a towel over it and a feeder on top. Although it rarely ever went to that one. Some people wrap christmas lights around the feeder and you can also aim a flood lamp at the feeder to try to keep the feeder and/or the feeding ports from freezing.

@lseeber Haha, if I was that little guy, I would have moved right in with you forever. What a lucky little bird. Your husband was a sweetie to get up so early to take care of him.