Subject: [Tweeters] hummingbird disappearance?
Date: Thu Apr 22 08:45:46 PDT 2021
From: Jill Freidberg - jill.freidberg at gmail.com

We are seeing the Annas spending much more time feeding at flowers in bloom, as well as eating small insects and spider webs. They prefer those food sources over feeder nectar. Our feeders have seen very little activity since spring bloom began. Only female hummers care for the young, so leaving the nest to feed makes the nest vulnerable. Once eggs hatch in the nest, hummers stay much closer to the nest, so they may only be frequenting feeders and flowers that are closest to their nests. Meanwhile, male hummers already established territory. Whereas you might have seen several male hummers vying for space at the feeders in late winter, now there's likely to only be one male hummer in that territory, having triumphed over the others.

Jill


> On Apr 22, 2021, at 8:34 AM, Judith A. Howard <jhoward at uw.edu> wrote:

>

> We have a number of hummingbird feeders out pretty much all the time and they are usually at least somewhat busy all day long. A number of the Annas winter over, and from Feb to early summer, there are rufous as well. For some reason they have virtually disappeared the last several days. We are worried! Could it just be that they are tending nests? Has anyone else had a dramatic drop in the number of hummers visiting your feeders?

>

> Judy Howard

> Whidbey Island

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