Poor hummingbirds, the temperature had plummeted so low during the Christmas break that the feeders I set up for them had frozen. The hummingbirds must be unable to use our feeders on our deck and outside our window. Icicles were even hanging down from the roof gutter near the feeders.
Ideally, we should stop refilling our hummingbird feeders by the end of November to encourage the hummingbirds to migrate south before the big freeze comes around. Hummingbirds are typically migratory birds, flying south before winter and returning to our location before spring.
Icicles hang down the gutter of our roof, so the nearby hummingbird feeder must be also frozen: that’s bad for the hummingbirds.
But I kept refilling our feeders on our deck because our cats and I love to see those hovering birds by our deck. They feed early in the morning and late afternoon. Our cats and I look forward to those feeding times. So, at least two hummingbirds have been overwintering on our property. Maybe there are more, but we notice at least two regular visitors.
According to hummingbird authorities, even a slushy can do more harm than good to the intended users of our feeders. Worse, obviously, is when the feeders completely freeze over when the temperature goes below zero Celsius. The slushy or frozen feeders give the poor hummingbirds frost-bitten or damaged tongues. We’ve been in this situation ourselves when we voraciously lick on frozen delights like hard ice cream, soft ice cream, and frozen fruits.
So it’s very important that we keep our feeders not only useful but also safe for our hummingbirds. The most important part of the feeder is the channel or opening to the feeding tubes. These are the points of contact for the hovering hummingbirds’ tongues as they sip the sugared solution. The solution in these channels should not freeze over.
As a remedy, we should have some set up some insulation for our feeders during winter months to prevent the sugared water solution from freezing. The heaters could be as elaborate as those mini-heaters sold at bird and garden stores or as simple as wrapping the feeder with a woolen scarf or even cotton socks. A much more affordable method, though cumbersome, is bringing the feeders indoors for the evening and placing them back outdoors very early in the morning. But I often forget about this chore.
Or, as part of our Christmas lights displays, I could have strung up mini Christmas lights (not the L.E.D. kind but the regular incandescent ones) around the feeders. The mini lights would be enough to heat the feeders so the sugared water inside won’t freeze. The little heat from the lights might also give the birds some needed heat. But this even sounds like a more challenging thing to remember to turn on and off the lights promptly every day.
Another trick is to add more sugar to the feeder mixture. Higher sugar concentration helps the feeder to remain liquid at lower temperatures. Besides, that’s also giving the hummingbirds more calories, which they needed more especially now that the birds have much less food to drink and yet use more energy to maintain their specific body temperature during colder weather. It’s OK to have the sugar-to-water ratio at 1:3, instead of the usual 1:4. Too much sugar, however, may lead to thrush development on the birds’ tongues.
Whatever little things we can do to help the hummingbirds survive winter will be big enough for those tiny but beautiful hummingbirds, I’m sure.
Kommentare