Hummingbirds primarily eat flower nectar, tree sap and insects.
The hummingbird’s fast breathing rate, fast heartbeat and high body temperature require that they eat an enormous amount of food each day. Hummingbirds have a long tongue which they use to lick their food at a rate of up to 13 licks per second.
Population
It is difficult to estimate population numbers since there are many different species spanning a large geogra...
Old hummingbird window feeders make great bee dishes! Since I have been putting up bee dishes, I have greatly cut down on the number of bees attacking the hummingbird feeders. When I see a lot of bees at a feeder, I either take the feeder down and replace it with a bee dish or replace the vacuum feeder with a saucer feeder and hang the bee dish next to it. Since the bees cannot drink from the saucer feeder, it has...
You may have noticed that I changed the type of hummingbird feeders on the webcam. This is a method to help control bees. There is a drought in Southern California, and the local bees are desperate for water. What could be better for them than a water source that is sugary to boot! The bees are using the water dishes, but there are still a few on the feeders.
Hummingbird feeders come in two basic types: saucer feeders and vacuu...
You love them and you hate them. Bees are fabulous pollinators and we depend on them for the fruits and vegetables we need. But please, bees – get your sugar from flowers, not our hummingbird feeders!
To tempt and keep bees away from your hummingbird feeders, you need a multi-directional approach:
1. You should consider permanently or temporarily (until the bees forget where you are) using saucer feeders rather than vacuum feede...
I was bothered by yellow jackets when I lived at Lake Tahoe. My house backed up to a hundred acres of government land that was pretty much untouched and full of yellow jacket nests. I couldn’t serve dinner outside without having to fight them for my own food!
Fertile queens winter underground in old rodent holes, in tree stumps and old logs. As soon as the weather starts to warm, they will leave their winter burrow and set out...
I know it’s Spring, because the first Hooded Oriole has been spotted on the cam. Hooded Orioles winter in Mexico and migrate north in the early Spring, just like some of the hummingbirds. The hummers are shy around them, probably because they are so large. If one arrives at the feeders they all take off until the oriole leaves, then they come right back.
Male Hooded Orioles come in colors ranging from bright lemon yellow to dee...
Raw, organic, turbinado and brown sugar are harmful to hummingbirds. You should only make your hummingbird nectar with granulated white sugar. Cane sugar is preferable, but beet sugar is also acceptable. Don’t use confectioner’s sugar either, as it contains an anti-caking agent.
Raw, turbinado and organic sugar is made by taking sugar cane and squeezing out the juice. The juice is then evaporated and spun in a turbine (hence th...
You may have noticed that I changed the type of hummingbird feeders on the webcam. This is a method to help control bees. There is a drought in Southern California, and the local bees are desperate for water. What could be better for them than a water source that is sugary to boot! The bees are using the water dishes, but there are still a few on the feeders.
Hummingbird feeders come in two basic types: saucer feeders and vacuu...
SUGAR! One part sugar to four parts water is the norm. That’s the amount of sugar found in most of the flowers on which they feed. During the spring, when the females spend a lot of time nesting, I make the food a little more concentrated so they can get more sugar with fewer visits. You should also provide the higher concentration if you live in one of those areas where the birds are bulking up for the long migration. You can...
These awesome hummingbird tattoos belong to two great people I worked with today in Beverly Hills: Sam Oliva and Veronica Carrillo. How unusual that two people with rather large hummingbird tattoos would be in the same room at work with me today!
Veronica’s is on her left shoulder. Sam’s is on his right upper arm.
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