During most of the summer we have had one or two Ruby Throated Hummingbirds at our feeder. But several weeks ago that all changed. There are now Hummingbirds at the two feeders constantly and, as you can see from the photo, sometimes there is a waiting line for an open spot. We think that the reason for the big increase in birds is that the babies have hatched and now there are many more Hummingbirds around. Neighbors and friends with feeders have seen the same increase.We have two identical feeders off the deck about 10 feet apart. For some reason most of the Hummingbirds prefer the one to the right. When they agree to cooperate, that feeder often has 5 or 6 birds feeding at one time.
The other feeder often has just one short fat male sitting on the feeder railing by himself. He aggressively chases everyone else away from "his" feeder.
One interesting event happened a couple of days ago. A neighbor called to say that a Hummingbird was in his garage and couldn't find her way out even though all 3 garage doors and the walk-in door were open. The bird stayed near the ceiling and wouldn't drop down to find a door. By the time we walked down to their house, Ron had herded the bird into a corner where she had nowhere to land, and when she tired from flying he caught her by hand. He carried the bird outside and laid her on a leaf on a shrub. The Hummingbird just lay there for about 10 minutes looking around and blinking but not trying to fly. Then, once she caught her breath and regained some energy she flew off into a high tree. She can now tell her friends about the giant human monsters that saved her life.
