PILOT SPIN
Spin Zone => Spin Zone => Topic started by: Rush on September 07, 2025, 07:12:41 PM
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We have a feeder and I’ve recently taken an interest in the little buggers.
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Yes--I've been feeding the hummers here and at my old house for almost 50 years. That said, something is going on this year; I have hummingbird activity like I've never had, or even seen before. Usually I have one feeder in my back yard, another in front. This year the activity in front is so great I had to add two more feeders. Each feeder holds a quart of juice and none of them will go more than two days before needing refilling.
Each feeder can handle six birds, and at any given time during the day I will have 5-10 birds feeding. At peak times there are so many birds buzzing around you'd swear you're looking at a swarm of bees.
Tim
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My wife has at least 6 feeders in the yard. We have 3 that are regulars.
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Yes--I've been feeding the hummers here and at my old house for almost 50 years. That said, something is going on this year; I have hummingbird activity like I've never had, or even seen before. Usually I have one feeder in my back yard, another in front. This year the activity in front is so great I had to add two more feeders. Each feeder holds a quart of juice and none of them will go more than two days before needing refilling.
Each feeder can handle six birds, and at any given time during the day I will have 5-10 birds feeding. At peak times there are so many birds buzzing around you'd swear you're looking at a swarm of bees.
Tim
Wow! The most we have is 3. We have a feeder in the front and one in the back, and each has six “flowers” and we only have 3 birds and they all fight over both feeders. If one is feeding, soon another will chase it away.
There used to be just 2 males and we only had the front feeder but they fought over it so much my husband bought the second, putting it in the back thinking they could each have their own territory and no more fights. Nope!! Haha! Now they each claim BOTH feeders. Plus now they’ve been joined by a female.
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My wife has at least 6 feeders in the yard. We have 3 that are regulars.
This is the first year I’ve taken an interest in them. I’m curious if the same 3 will return in the spring.
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Plus now they’ve been joined by a female.
Now, the real fighting will start.
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We don't have any "feeders", but we do have a yard full of plants that hummingbirds like, including Bee Balm, Fuchsia, Native Lantana, Passion flower and about a dozen others selected so that we have something blooming all year round. We moved into this house on May1 and immediately started replacing invasive plants with various native plants designed to attract pollinators, like butterflies, native bees and humming birds. When we first moved in the yard was a wildlife wasteland, but we are already seeing a long list of pollinators showing up.
Problem is that the HOA is already complaining the we have replaced a lot of our St. Augustine turf with native plants, trees and ground cover. But we have it on good authority that they can't do anything about it.
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This is the first year I’ve taken an interest in them. I’m curious if the same 3 will return in the spring.
If they survive, they will return to the same spot every year.
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We don't have any "feeders", but we do have a yard full of plants that hummingbirds like, including Bee Balm, Fuchsia, Native Lantana, Passion flower and about a dozen others selected so that we have something blooming all year round. We moved into this house on May1 and immediately started replacing invasive plants with various native plants designed to attract pollinators, like butterflies, native bees and humming birds. When we first moved in the yard was a wildlife wasteland, but we are already seeing a long list of pollinators showing up.
Problem is that the HOA is already complaining the we have replaced a lot of our St. Augustine turf with native plants, trees and ground cover. But we have it on good authority that they can't do anything about it.
Sounds beautiful. You would think the HOA would like that. But I hear HOAs can be stupid, petty and evil.
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If they survive, they will return to the same spot every year.
Cool!
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You should see more Rush as they migrant south for the winter this fall. Beautiful and amazing little birds.
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We have two feeders, but my wife never filled them this year.
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I got my wife this for Christmas this past year.
https://mybirdbuddy.com/product/smart-hummingbird-feeder-with-solar-roof/
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This might help.
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I got my wife this for Christmas this past year.
https://mybirdbuddy.com/product/smart-hummingbird-feeder-with-solar-roof/
That’s GREAT! I’m getting one for hubby, an early Christmas B-day present.
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You should see more Rush as they migrant south for the winter this fall. Beautiful and amazing little birds.
Here’s a cool moving map of their migration over a year, I should be seeing them through the end of October.
https://blog.gitbirds.com/hummingbird-migration-maps-and-routes-2025/
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Well we just had a big adventure. Griselda (the female) somehow flew into the garage and couldn’t figure out how to get out. She flew all around in a panic up by the ceiling somehow unable to see that all she had to do was dip down a couple feet and fly through one of the giant open doors.
So Mark hung a feeder at the entrance and after settling down and sitting on a wire looking at it for a while, she finally came to it and fed, and went outside… then came right back in! But this time knew to come to the feeder, and went outside again, after which Mark took away the feeder. Hope she learned her lesson.
Silly bird.
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Griselda (the female) somehow flew into the garage and couldn’t figure out how to get out.
This has happened to us many times. As you found out, when a hummingbird gets into trouble, its instincts tell it that "up" is safety. Sometimes placing something bright red just outside the garage door will get them out of there. If that doesn't work, eventually the bird will exhaust itself and drop to the floor at which point you can pick it up and take it outside. After it's rested a bit it will fly off and get something to eat.
Tim
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This has happened to us many times. As you found out, when a hummingbird gets into trouble, its instincts tell it that "up" is safety. Sometimes placing something bright red just outside the garage door will get them out of there. If that doesn't work, eventually the bird will exhaust itself and drop to the floor at which point you can pick it up and take it outside. After it's rested a bit it will fly off and get something to eat.
Tim
You are right! Mark has a couple of bright red/orange RC parts hanging in there. When he hung the feeder, I put on a bright red T-shirt and stood outside very still, off to the side a bit, hoping she’d see the red shirt if she couldn’t see the feeder. I don’t think they fear us because they are used to us sitting out by the feeder all the time and they come near. Fly right past us often, close enough we could reach out and grab them if we were predators with fast enough reflexes.
I videoed her looking in my general direction, I’ll grab a screenshot and post it later, gotta get back to work now.
Edit: I tried, there's no pic of quality worth posting.
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I got my wife this for Christmas this past year.
https://mybirdbuddy.com/product/smart-hummingbird-feeder-with-solar-roof/
Did you get the solar powered one? Does it work well?
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Did you get the solar powered one? Does it work well?
Yes on the solar. It works well but sometimes the birds are too fast for the shutter. Not sure if that can be adjusted.
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Yes on the solar. It works well but sometimes the birds are too fast for the shutter. Not sure if that can be adjusted.
Is it the shutter or the motion sensor. I don't know about your unit, but the motion sensor sensitivity can often be adjusted. If it's too sensitive you may get too many false activations. Not sensitive enough you miss what you are looking for.
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Is it the shutter or the motion sensor. I don't know about your unit, but the motion sensor sensitivity can often be adjusted. If it's too sensitive you may get too many false activations. Not sensitive enough you miss what you are looking for.
Probably the motion sensor now that I think of it. I'll have the wife check the setting on the app.