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lotsapots

Hummingbirds not seen in a week--any ideas?

lotsapots
16 years ago

Last week, I refilled my feeder with a new solution, and put up another feeder on the opposite side of the house. The solution is a different brand than what I had been using. Now, it's been over a week, and I've only seen one hummingbird!

Does anyone have any ideas about where they may be?

Comments (11)

  • down2earth
    16 years ago

    I am not in your area but we have a few passing thru in April and then we don't get any that stay until July. Do you usually have hummers all Spring?

  • lotsapots
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    I've always had hummingbirds from late March until September.

  • hummersteve
    16 years ago

    I too have the same situation. I had my first hummer in april and then had only 4 visits and after that , none for about 4days now. Every hummer I saw were males and Im guessing untill I get a female and male I wont have any that take up residence.. Yes I too have always had regulars in may and this is beginning to get odd.

  • babesy
    16 years ago

    I posted here several weeks ago about moving, how to transition them. Well, I cut down feeders to 1, and then a windstorm came, emptying the one. It hung up on a hanging plant, and tipping sideways, emptied out apparently.

    Well, for a number of weeks, I have not seen ONE. I used to have several around each feeder. I'm so sad. This is the Phoenix area and I am so hoping they found other sources of food.

  • lotsapots
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Interesting--both posts made me think--I have only seen two males since I first spotted them. And, we had a hard wind blowing, and it emptied my feeder, too. The next day, I refilled it, put up the new one, and haven't seen a bird since. Maybe they've moved on to find females--maybe the swinging feeder spooked them! I don't know what the cause is, but my kids and I certainly miss them.

  • novice60
    16 years ago

    I put up feeders on the 13th, saw first male on the 15th. saw him maybe 3 more times since then. We usually have lots by this time of year and much more frequent.
    dee

  • fernzilla
    16 years ago

    Well everyone:

    I quess your Hummers all came over to my house(;-) I have three feeders up and everytime I look outside I see at least 6 or more Hummers. I know they are supposed to be very
    territorial but these seem to tolerate each other most of the time. I have seen my feeders with more than one hummer feeding from it, and as many as 4 at one time.
    As far as a different brand of nectar, I NEVER use brand
    name nectars. I use plain old tap water, with equal parts
    sugar, brought to a slow boil. I allow it to cool then fill each feeder. I do this every 4 days. The coloring agent in most nectars is not good for the Hummers. It should only be used the first time to attract the Hummers.
    I have pictures of many Hummers on my feeder if anybody wants to email me. I never have figured how to post a picture on this site.

    Patricia(Fernzilla)

  • bridget_bb
    16 years ago

    We had a great start to the year with more hummers than we've ever had. We had a new feeder which they used once in a while, sugar/water soln, though they mainly preferred our trumpet honeysuckle... BUT ....for the past few weeks we've seen hardly any. We had one today briefly and one a couple of nights ago, but that's been pretty much it.
    It's been windier than usual here too but the odd thing about that is we had hummers feeding in the worst of that weather several weeks ago????
    A fiend of ours called today complaining that they weren't seeing any and they usually get several to our ones and twos. What is going on???

    ACTUALLY-- all of our birds, (Finches, Cardinals, Doves, Blues etc) have basically disappeared in the last day or two....it's way too quiet around here....

  • jenny_in_se_pa
    16 years ago

    Mating season!

    Consider that once the females arrived, the males went to work (I had one doing its "U" and "J" swoops during the first part of May whenever a female was around) and there's usually a drop off as the females make nests and lay eggs, etc. Eventually the juvies will add to the population again.

    Also note that they seem to love honeysuckle so whenever the wild honeysuckle is blooming, I've found that the frequency drops off for a bit as they are swarming the honeysuckles. Of course if you plant your own (look for the native type), they'll at least be nearby. :)

  • bridget_bb
    16 years ago

    AHHHH!! Never thought about it being 'mating' season. That makes a lot of sense Jenny!
    Yes... the honeysuckle is our own and earlier in the season we'd have 3 or 4 at a time fighting for a spot.... which is good for us as we only used to get one at a time.

    We still get a hummer now and again so all is not lost. We'll just have to be patient I guess!

    And on another note, our BB's are back... yea. We fear one of our doves was attacked by a hawk. We had two that would visit for a bath every night... then a few nights ago a hawk swooped in as they were preening on the fence. Have only seen one since then.
    Guess that's life.
    Thanks for the info!
    Bridget.

  • myoneandonly
    16 years ago

    Saw my first HB (female) today since the middle of May. I've been haunting my feeder since then hoping for another sighting.

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