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Re: Hummingbird feeding



Nicely put Steve. I should add two more points. First, the freezing point 
of water drops dramatically when something is dissolved in it, sugar for 
instance. While the temperature regularly drops below water's freezing 
point in NC in the winter, it much more rarely (if ever) drops low enough 
to freeze sugar water. My birdbath has frozen over a few times this 
winter so far, but the hummingbird feeder has not.

Second, note that hummingbirds virtually never show up in an area where 
hummingbird feeders are the only available food source. The Anna's last 
winter came to Judy Walker's house because of her Pineapple Sage patch, 
hence the sudden surge in this plant's popularity in NC. In my yard, the 
feeder is up, but there are no flowers and as yet no Sapsuckers, and so 
no hummers either. As Steve said, the feeders do not attract the hummers, 
they just make them easier for us to observe. The scientific evidence on 
seed and suet feeders seems to indicate that the same is true of them.

So keep on feedin'...

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology

jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/