Guatemala seems to lack hummingbird feeders (1 Viewer)

We toured northern Guatemala last week, and were disappointed with the hummingbird feeders. Our guide knew of a restaurant that had one near Coban, but the place was closed when we drove by. We stayed at Ram Tzul near the Biotipo de Quetzal, where there were lots of flowers, but no feeders. Laguna Lachua wouldn't be expected to have feeders, but they would be nice there. There were Long-billed And Stripe-throated Hermits in the woods, though. Tikal Inn could have had feeders, but we did not spend time there in daylight. At Finca Ixobel, they had feeders up, but two were empty, and another needed changing. We did find some wild ones there: Canivet's Emerald and Wedge-tailed Saberwing. Feeders would have brought in more, for sure.

Perhaps next time.
Jeff

There are not many places that offer feeders in Costa Rica, either. The cost seems to be prohibitive to fill them daily, and the time taken to make sure they are clean.
A friend fills about theirs daily and say's it costs $50 per week...ouch!

that seems like alot for a country that can grow it's own sugar cane !

Oregonian said:

We toured northern Guatemala last week, and were disappointed with the hummingbird feeders. Our guide knew of a restaurant that had one near Coban, but the place was closed when we drove by. We stayed at Ram Tzul near the Biotipo de Quetzal, where there were lots of flowers, but no feeders. Laguna Lachua wouldn't be expected to have feeders, but they would be nice there. There were Long-billed And Stripe-throated Hermits in the woods, though. Tikal Inn could have had feeders, but we did not spend time there in daylight. At Finca Ixobel, they had feeders up, but two were empty, and another needed changing. We did find some wild ones there: Canivet's Emerald and Wedge-tailed Saberwing. Feeders would have brought in more, for sure.

Perhaps next time.
Jeff

Click to expand...

I live in Guatemala, and hummingbird feeders (and bird feeders in general) are indeed uncommon. I never saw them for sale until a chain store opened here a couple of years ago. I know they have a feeding station at Finca El Pilar near Antigua, but I haven't seen any feeders anywhere else (except at my house!)

I don't know about $50 a week to fill them; sugar costs less than a dollar a kilo, and I can't imagine 50 kilos of sugar a week! I refill my two feeders several times a week, and two kilos of sugar last me a few weeks or more.

Birdseed is expensive, one of several reasons I don't feed birds other than hummers; and many families would have trouble affording even a few dollars a week for bird feeding. I attract a lot of birds with birdbaths, though.

Helen

Sugar cane is cheap...the processed sugar is not!
And believe me, these friends have a dozen or more feeders.
And when I visit, I see that no hummers are using the blooms in the garden. What a shame....

I've seen wonderfully active feeders in Costa Rica (Monteverde in 1990) Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Trinidad, and Colombia, especially Colombia, and I can't imagine the cost structure is so different in Guatemala. I suspect it's an education issue.
Generally the gardens in such a place are alive with hummingbirds as well, so I don't think feeders keep the birds away from the flowers.

I would no be unhappy if instead feeders it is a lot of flowers (hummingbird flowers indeed!) in the garden. Grand examples are Rogitama Reserve N of Bogota where this rare hummingbird (cf. Bogota Sunangel... search for the threads here in BF) is been showing up: they do not have a single feeder and DO attract and you can easily see endemic Black Inca and near-endemics Short-tailed Emerald, Lazuline Sabrewing, etc (http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=rogitama&w=27992517@N08&s=int)... other good mixed example is the Recinto del Pensamiento above Manizales (http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=pensamiento&w=27992517@N08&s=int) where they take off the feeders one or two days per week and they do have low sugar concentration so they "promote" the use of the mega huge garden hey have with plenty of good hummer flowers.
Some of the superb places you knew in Colombia (ie. Rio Blanco) now are not a good hummingbird feeders spot anymore: at Rio Blanco you basically only see Buff-tailed Coronets with some Fawn-breasted Brillian and some sylphs, woodstars, and violetears not too often.. quite boring compared to what you saw there back in 2006 and 2007 for sure!...
Other great examples in the side of the feeders is Jardin Encantado (http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=encantado&w=27992517@N08&s=int) where almost 30 feeders are fit in a small place; EVERY feeder is perfectly cleaned EVERY morning and this is a place where the sugar costs US300/month !!.. actually that was one of the reasons of the owner to open it to the public (charging a fee of course) ;-)
I do have mixed feelings about hummingbird and antpitta feeders, I do enjoy them, but it is not right for me I feel...
saludos y un abrazo Jeff, Diego.

We stopped by Rancho Naturalista last week, which is near where we used to live, and yes, they offered multiple feeders. The very popular 'birder' spots such as Monteverde, Tarcoles and La Paz Waterfall Gardens offer them but at very few popular regular 'tourist' hotels, they are not usually seen.
Ex-pat home owners here occasionally put up feeders, but locals seldom do.

In most cases I think the locals are just not aware of them. Most of northern Central America is devoid of hummingbird feeders, which is why I was so surprised to turn up on Utila in the Bay Islands of Honduras to find that almost every house had a feeder (this was back in 2000). Apparently someone took lots of them there and either gave them away or sold them and the locals so took to them that they continued to want more and shipped them over. It took the initial delivery to spark the interest that would probably not have happened otherwise. The biggest surprise is not seeing any at the hotels or restaurants at Tikal. You would have thought that a major tourist destination in the middle of a forest would have been the perfect place, and would have attracted people to the local restaurants.

Tom

in 2005, Casa de Don David in el Remate (on the way to Tikal) had at least one feeder in the gardens.
off the top of my head can't remember exactly which species were using it, but i'm fairly certain wedge-tailed sabrewing and long-tailed hermit (taxonomy?) were, probably rufous-taild hummingbird also?
cheers,
James