Hummingbirds

[Islandeer]

Seen one driving towards Victoria, quite a large one actually....

[Iron-Head]

I am seeing and heaaring them all day here on the sunshine coast and they have a bright purple and red throats with like a tiger orange and black back very neat looking birds.This morning I was walking down to my pond and I had pj bottoms on with bright red lips on them and There was this one who kept on flying towards the red color I guess,He got withing about 5 feet before buggerin off.

[death-junky]

ive seen a few in Port Al so ya they are coming
ttyal
Riley

[Big Lew]

I have Anna's hummingbirds (currently 3 pairs) staying over winter here in the
Fraser Valley. This winter the temperatures have gone down to -10, sometimes
with a wind chill factor of -25 yet the little birds show up early each morning for
their sugar water. I have a small heat light under the feeders which I turn on if
the temperature dips down below -3 so that the nectar doesn't freeze.
Does anyone know just how low the temperature can go before the birds can't
survive?

[finngun]

Those little birdies can hibernate when its getting really cold.. real survivers..

[Bonz]

learned something new...

Due to their high metabolism and small body size, hummingbirds rely upon a state of suspended animation, known as torpor, to survive cold nights. Because tropical hummingbird species also have rigid metabolic budgets, even they rely on daily torpor to conserve energy

https://www.theguardian.com/science/...ve-cold-nights

[Big Lew]

learned something new...

Due to their high metabolism and small body size, hummingbirds rely upon a state of suspended animation, known as torpor, to survive cold nights. Because tropical hummingbird species also have rigid metabolic budgets, even they rely on daily torpor to conserve energy

https://www.theguardian.com/science/...ve-cold-nights

Yes, I've read several articles similar to that one but none of them give specific low temperature maximums
where the birds can't survive. Not much I can do about it except hope these birds don't find out.

[Bonz]

im the same here, more than ive ever seen before, and hant been near this cold during winter. couple of my neighbours have feeder and its always bussy around her with them. and during breeding time

[kevan]

We have three feeders on the go, not sure how many Hummers we have.
The feeders are brought in every night and put out at daybreak and on colder days like today they are refreshed and warmed up several times so they aren't allowed to freeze.

[digger dogger]

We have a couple this winter(third winter)I have one of our feeders wrapped in a water line heater cord.
The buggers perch on it sometimes. The ol'lady, says the nectar is 75% sugar.
Tough little SOB's.