My Column: Meet Some Real Humdingers
June 20, 2024
My latest column for The Record is about all the birds, mammals and bugs that dine at hummingbird feeders.
I asked folks to tell me what has been showing up at their feeders. Some of the answers: a flying squirrel, baby raccoons, and woodpeckers galore. A family of Downy Woodpeckers has been draining my small hummingbird feeder daily. I have to remove the perch from this one and put up another so my hummingbird has more room to sip and sup.
Landis Eaton's trailcam photo of the mooching flying squirrel wouldn’t work for the newspaper, so I am including it now.
You can read the column here:
By Jim Wright
Special to The Record | USA TODAY NETWORK - NEW JERSEY
Today is the first day of summer, and I thought I’d celebrate by coining a new term to describe an old phenomenon: any non-hummingbird that slurps the sugary water from a hummingbird feeder.
From now on, I’m calling these interlopers “humdingers.” Most of these intruders are welcome this year. Although the Cornell Lab of Ornithology reports that the ruby-throated hummingbird population has increased by 17 percent in the Garden State in the past decade, many backyard birders are reporting fewer hummingbirds flitting around this year.
Over the years, I’ve seen a squirrel or two and several woodpeckers at my hummer feeders, but what are other birders seeing? I did a quick informal poll of readers of this column and some serious birders statewide, and had 18 responses. The overwhelming winner was (drum roll, please!): Downy woodpecker.
Almost everyone reported seeing downy woodpeckers. One respondent also had a red-bellied woodpecker, and another had two hairy woodpeckers. I am told that the downys also like to eat the little bugs these feeders sometimes attract.
Speaking of insects, one respondent sent a two-decades-old cellphone photo of a monarch butterfly sipping at her hummingbird feeder. If I had a photo like that, I’d keep it for 20 years, too.
While lepidopteras like sugar water, ants love it. That’s why I use the hanging hummingbird feeders with a little moat for water in the middle to keep the ants from reaching the sweet water.
Just about anything that moves in the wilds of your backyard could be tempted to stop by, from squirrels and flying squirrels to bears. I'm told that if you hang the feeder too low, you might attract babies raccoons or even a wild turkey passing through.
Some advice: If a bear has visited any of your feeders, take all of them down for at least a week lest the bear makes it a habit.
One reader wrote in to complain that a squirrel had removed the yellow plastic flowers that adorned her feeder so it had a wider opening and easier access to the nectar. The same thing happened to me several years ago, and I stopped using that type of feeder. Those yellow plastic adornments can also attract bees – seldom a good thing feeder-wise.
My favorite interloper by far is the male Baltimore oriole that has been appearing daily at my nectar feeder and lighting up my yard for more than two weeks. He gave me the idea for this column.
As an added inducement, one day I cut a clementine in half and placed it atop the feeder. Not only did the oriole nibble at the orange, but it also made for a humdinger of a photo.
For more information on hummingbirds, check out hummingbirdsplus.org
The Bird Watcher column appears every other Thursday. Jim’s latest book, "The Screech Owl Companion," was published by Timber Press. Email Jim at [email protected].