Hummingbirds at the feeder in the evening. Hummingbirds are quite territorial. However, just before the sun goes completely down, they all make a dash for the hummingbird feeder and seemingly ignore their territorial tendencies. There was a crowd of about 8 at the feeder and they were mostly unfazed by the flash (suggesting that they were quite hungry and stashing food for the evening).
One question for the Zen Birdfeeder (if you're reading this...). I've put up other feeders which all seem to come with plastic reservoirs. However, they are largely ignored and the birds all end up coming back to this trusty old feeder with a glass reservoir. Any idea why?
2 comments:
Hi Arnold,
You're so lucky to have a variety of hummingbirds and hummingbirds all year long. We only have one regular species (ruby throated) and then only from May-Sep. RT hummers are very territorial too and we never see groups of 8 at a feeder at one time.
As far as the plastic vs. glass, there shouldn't be any issue with a well-made plastic feeder vs. a glass feeder. What could be more at play is location or cleanliness.
Try this - move the plastic where the glass is and vice versa. See if you observe any change. If the plastic is still ignored, give it a good cleaning with a weak bleach solution (10parts water, 1 part bleach), rinse very well, air dry, rehang.
If there is still an issue, it might be the quality of the plastic. Here's the pitch you were allowing - Wild Birds Unlimited feeders are made of a high quality plastic with no known leaching. I use our plastic feeders almost exclusively and the hummers love them.
Thanks for the question and LMK how your "tests" turn out.
Wow... those are beautiful birds around your bird feeder.
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