Anyone else have an unusually large number of hummingbirds this year?

[oosik]

This year - five pair of the Emerald green males and one pair with a rust colored male. You are right ArlyA. All the males are gone and only two females remain.

 

[goeduck]

My birds are starting to pick up activity at the end of summer and ahead of some of them migrating. Some stay throughout the winter. Either way, they are drinking more. I have my ant moats up now so they should be good to go.

 

[ArlyA]

My birds are starting to pick up activity at the end of summer and ahead of some of them migrating. Some stay throughout the winter. Either way, they are drinking more. I have my ant moats up now so they should be good to go.

What species do you have?

 

[goeduck]

What species do you have?

We have two main species, Anna's and Rufous. Annas stay year-round and any migration they do is altitudinal (up into the mountains in summer). Living on the saltwater it is cooler here, so I see them all year. Rufous are the longest distance north-south migratory hummingbird, Mexico to Alaska.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Late summer and the bloom is off the vine. The hummers are short on sugar, so are hitting the feeders again. Consumption has doubled in the last couple weeks.

 

[subby]

We usually get a few or more a day in an average year. This year we typically had 30 to 50 or more a day at or feeders. Is this normal and has anyone else had numbers increase? Think they're coming back next year?

September is the start of the migration to So. America. Depending on where you live you may se massive feeding and an accumulation of Hummers. Texas has an area where thousands accumulate for feeding. The town has several hundred feeder in place. If have steaming search humming birds as a study was made and it is quite interesting. Some Hummers are almost the size of a Robin. WE had 3 weeks of Hummers feeding, used up to 3 pints per day. Had 3 species evident.

Subby

 

[sixdogs]

Our local birds seemed to have moved south but now we're getting stragglers from the north passing through. They have a very different look than the birds that stayed here this summer.

Nature is amazing in that these birds can travel thousands of miles to migrate and then return that same distance to the same feeding spot. I can't find my car in a parking lot.

 

[dragoneggs]

I'm having problems with swarms of bees taking over the feeder and the hummers are backing off.

 

[lman]

We only have about 1/3 of what we had earlier.

 

[ultrarunner]

It's like SF airport day before Thanksgiving... all coming in fighting for a spot.

So far the Yellow Jackets have not found it...