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Something stealing my hummingbirds' food every night (1 Viewer)

M

MarkS24

Well-known member
We have two hummingbird feeders we use. Starting about a week ago, one of them (the farthest from the house) suddenly started being drained surprisingly fast. Initially, we figured it was a leak. We cleaned it out thoroughly and put some water in it all day, but none leaked out. Fixed? The next night after putting it back out, it was fine. It appeared so. But then the next day, it was completely drained overnight again. We swapped the two hummingbird feeders in one last attempt to rule out a leak, but sure enough, the new one was completely drained the next morning too. Wind is definitely not the culprit either.

I ran across a hummingbird website that showed a bat taking drinks from a hummingbird feeder, describing how they can drain it overnight. That definitely sounded like the culprit and I thought we had it nailed down. Except, upon further looking, I found that the bat most commonly associated with that phenomena is the mexican long tongued bat, indigenous to the American Southwest area (Arizona/Mexico). I live in Missouri, which is a few thousand miles away from being in that area. I checked the Missouri state bats, and none appear to have the 'long tongue' that I assume is necessary to drink out of a hummingbird feeder.

Can any bat drain a hummingbird feeder if it wants to? I wouldn't think so given their mouths, but i'm starting to wonder. If not, what else could it be that is draining my hummingbird feeder overnight?
 
Hmm, I considered other common night animals. They surely don't have small enough mouths/tongues to actually drink out of it though, do they? The feeder's holes are about the size of a toothpick. I'd guess it possible that they could be climbing on it and spilling it out, but it's hanging on a pretty small rosebud tree that's thin and only about 9ft high.
 
Curtis Croulet said:
Bats are often cited as culprits.
Click to expand...

Not in MO though Curtis. Even if the feeder were in Texas, unless it were extreme south west, I'm talking less than 15 miles off the Rio Grande in Big Bend, it is not going to be bats.

I would guess racoons or opossums tipping the feeder to get the sugar water.
 
Maybe i'll lay a large pan or something under the feeder for a night and see if I can catch any excess spillage. That should verify if something is spilling it or not... unless of course they simply drink that up too. Any ideas on what I could do?
 
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humminbird said:
Not in MO though Curtis. Even if the feeder were in Texas, unless it were extreme south west, I'm talking less than 15 miles off the Rio Grande in Big Bend, it is not going to be bats.

I would guess racoons or opossums tipping the feeder to get the sugar water.
Click to expand...

I never saw the creature that was making off with my suet feeders (two completely disappeared), but I know we have opossums. We see them frequently.
 
Where are the feeders being hung? Sounds like you need to put them where the ground animals can't climb them to reach. I hang mine under the eaves of the house so not only are they protected from rain, but nothing but other birds could get to them.
 
The first one is hanging under the roof. No problems with that one. The problematic one is hanging from the tree I mentioned, about 15ft from the house.

While examining the feeder today, I noticed 5 small white hairs (about two inches long) laying on the top of the feeder along with some mud. It does seem to suggest that some animal is doing it - which, though, i'm not sure. We've also got a black & white cat, but I doubt it could be the source of it since it was never near the feeder when I was refilling it.

The top of the feeder hangs about 9 inches away from the tree. The bottom (where the feeding holes are) hangs about 12 inches. All I can imagine is that whatever it is either hangs horizontally from the tree by its paws and grasps the feeder, or it somehow jumps about a foot through the air to land on it. The idea of it climbing down that thin wire seems unlikely to me... followed next by the 'jumping' prospect, since the feeder rail that the hummingbirds hang on to is so small.

I suppose I could try buying a longer nail to hang the feeder from, but the current one is already about 6 inches out of the tree. I'd rather keep two feeders up, but if theres no other options, I guess I can bring this one down. It'd be nice to figure out exactly what is doing this though in any case.
 
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Katy Penland said:
Where are the feeders being hung? Sounds like you need to put them where the ground animals can't climb them to reach. I hang mine under the eaves of the house so not only are they protected from rain, but nothing but other birds could get to them.
Click to expand...

When I put out suet feeders (I just put out one for the first time in two years), they are on a tree trunk. But one of those that disappeared was hung from a shepherd's hook usually used for seed feeders. It was about 5 ft off the ground and three feet from a wood fence.
 
Sorry, I didn't mean to divert the discussion. There are raccoons in our neighborhood, but I've never seen any evidence or heard any reports from neighbors about seeing raccoons.
 
No problem. I've never seen a raccoon here, but I have seen an opossum. Since we live in a very rural area with trees all around though, i'm sure they are around.

I refilled the feeder today and removed the nail it hangs from. Instead I attached a thin iron spike to the tree as the new support. The feeder is now about 2.5ft away from the tree and hanging from the spike by a 2ft thin wire.

Tonight we'll see if that does the trick. If not, it seems we've got a real acrobat on our hands, since it'd have to jump about 3ft in the air from the tree to land on the feeder now.
 
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MarkS24 said:
No problem. I've never seen a raccoon here, but I have seen an opossum. Since we live in a very rural area with trees all around though, i'm sure they are around.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I meant to say there are raccoons in our region, but not (AFAIK) in our neighborhood.
 
MarkS24 said:
No problem. I've never seen a raccoon here, but I have seen an opossum. Since we live in a very rural area with trees all around though, i'm sure they are around.

I refilled the feeder today and removed the nail it hangs from. Instead I attached a thin iron spike to the tree as the new support. The feeder is now about 2.5ft away from the tree and hanging from the spike by a 2ft thin wire.

Tonight we'll see if that does the trick. If not, it seems we've got a real acrobat on our hands, since it'd have to jump about 3ft in the air from the tree to land on the feeder now.
Click to expand...

I'd be very surprised if this solves the problem, especially if the culprit is a racoon.
 
The only reason I put out suet recently was that hatch-year House Finches were pecking at an empty suet cage, which hasn't had a block in it for two years. So I put a fresh block in it, and they're all over it!
 
Well, I won't surprise you then, because it didn't. I woke up at 2:30am and the feeder was full. Woke up again at 4:30am and it was completely drained. Same usual crud on the glass of the feeder, looks like a mix of mud/saliva. Two white hairs.

Have a look. How does a raccoon manage to get on this feeder?:
http://img159.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc21&image=87701_feeder.jpg

Anyway, i'm done messing with it. I guess i'll be taking it down tonight for good unless someone has a bright idea of how to keep the coons away from this tree, short of opening up hunting season on them. I'm not going to bother with taking it down each night and putting it back up every single morning when i've got the backup feeder near the house that remains untouched.
 
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MarkS24 said:
Well, I won't surprise you then, because it didn't. I woke up at 2:30am and the feeder was full. Woke up again at 4:30am and it was completely drained. Same usual crud on the glass of the feeder, looks like a mix of mud/saliva. Two white hairs.

Have a look. How does a raccoon manage to get on this feeder?:
http://img159.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc21&image=87701_feeder.jpg

Anyway, i'm done messing with it. I guess i'll be taking it down tonight for good unless someone has a bright idea of how to keep the coons away from this tree, short of opening up hunting season on them. I'm not going to bother with taking it down each night and putting it back up every single morning when i've got the backup feeder near the house that remains untouched.
Click to expand...

In bear country they have a simple solution - feeder is taken down at night and is reestablished in the morning. Works great.

Coons are extremely agile. This one is probably climbing out on the support and reaching down.
 
humminbird said:
In bear country they have a simple solution - feeder is taken down at night and is reestablished in the morning. Works great.

Coons are extremely agile. This one is probably climbing out on the support and reaching down.
Click to expand...

Hummingbirds become active well before sunrise.
 
Curtis Croulet said:
Hummingbirds become active well before sunrise.
Click to expand...

And during most of the year, many of us are up and out long before sunrise. I hate to see the feeder totally removed which is what was discussed above. Seems to me that a part time feeder is better than none at all.
 
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