Hand Feeding the Hummingbirds

I make up fresh nectar every other day for my Anna Hummingbirds. The feed on my patio day and night. They are the only bird that can fly backwards. Here in Arizona desert they do not migrate so we have them year around.

Here are some of our Quail we feed and in the foreground one of our hummers:

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Love your picture Jim, so nice that you make fresh nectar for the hummingbirds! The Quail look so sweet, lots of happy birdies by you! :neat:
 
Yes Ma'am. We feed a big variety of birds. We provide fresh water, bird bath, food twice a day for all of them. My only birds I chase off are pigeons and only then because they are messy, and they start out a couple and soon there's dozens of them and they hog the food. But other than that....we feed 'em all.
 
Hummingbirds are fun to watch. We keep a couple of feeders filled all Summer and enjoy watching them dive and dodge as they jockey for position with the others at the feeders. I usually wear an orange baseball cap when I'm working outdoors, and they frequently confuse me for a flower, and buzz around my head...the first few times, I flinched a bit, but now, I just let them do their thing. We have dozens of bird species...from hummingbirds to turkeys and buzzards. My favorite are the Pileated Woodpeckers. These huge woodpeckers were the inspiration for the old Woody Woodpecker comics, and they are beautiful. When they find a tree with bugs, it sounds like someone hitting the tree with a hammer.
 
Sometimes if we're in the middle of nowhere camping, some hummingbirds will be attracted to our red tail lights on the truck. Interesting little birds, love to see them!
 
Nice photos here I posted on an old thread...
http://www.arkinspace.com/2012/04/hummingbirds-in-flight.html





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In some areas of the country certain species of Hummingbirds migrate for winter. They load up their tiny tanks with nectar and fly NON STOP across the gulf of Mexico to the mountains where they winter. Think about that for their tiny size. Here in Arizona we have them all year, they do not migrate, at least the Anna species doesn't and that's what I feed.
 
Hummingbirds are a delight to watch. Because of our climate they are only here
for the summer months and can be seen often around my flower garden.
We see a few Monarch butterflies too but not as many as in years past.
 
Warri, They are funny little creatures. They will even come up to my livingroom windows, and chatter a me to remind me that it is time to feed them. Sometimes they just want me to come out to play. If I don't move around too quickly, as many as six or seven will use me as a perch. :wave:
 
We have hummingbirds around here during the summer. It's fun to watch them-for a couple years there was one that would fly up to us and hoover about 6 feet away, just about every evening. I'm assuming it was the same bird both years.
 
Ron, that's an online video, not my hand in the clip. Here's an aggressive squirrel getting his way at the bird feeders.

 
Squirrels are some of the most "creative" little creatures. If there's a way to get to bird seeds, they will find it. I tried various feeders, and finally found one with a sloping roof, that make the little "robbers" fall off onto the ground just about the time they reach the seeds. It's kind of entertaining to see them keep trying, though.
 
AZ Jim said:
In some areas of the country certain species of Hummingbirds migrate for winter. They load up their tiny tanks with nectar and fly NON STOP across the gulf of Mexico to the mountains where they winter. Think about that for their tiny size. Here in Arizona we have them all year, they do not migrate, at least the Anna species doesn't and that's what I feed.
Click to expand...

We have them all year too. Amazingly strong and aggressive little birds. My favorite.
 

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