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Thu, Aug 16, 12 at 19:56
| I have had hummingbird feeders for several years now, and regularly saw the little birds (ruby throated or rufous in my area) coming to the feeders....however, this year I have been mobbed!! Before I would see them pretty regularly, at least every half hour, at the feeders - but now I see them constantly. They are ALWAYS there. They chase each other away from the feeders and flowers, and are always buzzing around and zooming by, or perching in the nearby trees so as to keep a better eye on THEIR feeder..it's awesome to watch, and I am thrilled to have them here. I even went out and bought an extra feeder, and am thinking of adding another and increasing the number of flowers they like next year.
My question is, why the sudden increase? I'm in Southern New Jersey....has anyone else in my area seen an increase in hummingbirds? I am also noticing that now there seem to be mostly females, and I know that the males migrate early, maybe even in July - so seeing females is probably not unusual this time of year. Could it be that i have a female and her babies hanging around? While they do chase each other away from the feeders, it also seems they take turns drinking, so there is a certain amount of cooperation! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Maybe it's because so many have been forced to leave Texas and Arizona because their wildflowers have dried up. I saw that on the news. |
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| you are probably getting a wave of females migrating through. You are correct that adult males leave before the females by a few weeks, then the adult females and lastly the juveniles. I doubt that you would see Rubies coming from the south, the ones leaving Texas and Arizona would be either going south to Central American or perhaps east along the coast to LA, AL, or FL. The Panhandle of Florida does get birds that come across and then head south in Florida instead of going to Mexico. |
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