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What do they eat in winter, when nothing is in bloom? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter RalphBean
- Start date
jmepler
It's just a flesh wound.
Hi Ralph,
Welcome to Birdforum, and not a dumb question at all.
While there may still be flowers blooming that you don't notice, nectar is not the Hummingbirds only food.
Just as you and I cannot survive on a diet of sugar alone, neither can the Hummingbird. They supplement their diet with insects and spiders which provide them with protein, fat, and minerals.
They will pluck spiders and fresh insects from webs and off plants and flowers, and they will catch flying insets in the air, a behavior known as "hawking".
Mike
Welcome to Birdforum, and not a dumb question at all.
While there may still be flowers blooming that you don't notice, nectar is not the Hummingbirds only food.
Just as you and I cannot survive on a diet of sugar alone, neither can the Hummingbird. They supplement their diet with insects and spiders which provide them with protein, fat, and minerals.
They will pluck spiders and fresh insects from webs and off plants and flowers, and they will catch flying insets in the air, a behavior known as "hawking".
Mike
In California, there are both winter-blooming native (e.g. various chaparral species) & non-native (lots of different kinds, including Eucalyptus) plants which hummers can feed on in the cold months. And, of course, in the suburbs there’s the sugar water in feeders. Another energy source is tree sap, either naturally exuding or from woodpecker borings (e.g., sapsucker wells).
For protein, they exploit the same kinds of tiny invertebrates they feed on in the other seasons, including those attracted to sap wells & other sources of tree sap.
For protein, they exploit the same kinds of tiny invertebrates they feed on in the other seasons, including those attracted to sap wells & other sources of tree sap.
Most species migrate, but Anna’s hummers stick around all year & are easily seen wherever there are feeders.
Now, 2 years ago when I had a hummer all winter, I was amazed to see hummers going after the sap the Sapsuckers had let loose but then I realized, it wasn't the sap but bugs stuck in the sap. Same with suet. Of course down here my winters aren't as severe as some so I keep bugs pretty much all year long 
Dave B Smith
Well-known member
Hello Ralph,
On behalf of the staff, welcome to the Birdforum. Hope you enjoy it here.
On behalf of the staff, welcome to the Birdforum. Hope you enjoy it here.
Some Anna's also live year round in Oregon. They tend to be a bit less energetic, but they do eat insects and many people keep feeders out for them.
Chris D
Well-known member
Yes yes yes and yes. My local Anna's love to capture small insects on the wing in my yard. Unlike some neighbors, I never spray pesticides (to kill everything). Each afternoon my lawn launches little swarms of harmless midges. Hummers love them - along with winter blooms and folks feeders.
humminbird
Well-known member
Actually, insects are more than "a supplement". Studies are showing that they may compose more than 50% of the hummingbird diet!
Maybe not completely on-topic, but here's something hot off the presses on hummingbird tongues & nectar feeding:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/science/24obhummingbird.html?ref=science
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/science/24obhummingbird.html?ref=science
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humminbird
Well-known member
The title itself is all you need to see that this physicist did not even take the time to observe a hummingbird eating. Hummingbirds lap the nectar, like a dog does. They do not sip through a straw.
I'm surprised to hear you say that. I've watched hummers feed in a way consistent with Bush's description many times. The tongue is extruded into the sugar water for an inch or so, held there for a short time, & then withdrawn back into the bill. I've never actually seen the "straw", of course, which would be much too small to identify with the naked eye, especially through the glass wall of a feeder.
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humminbird
Well-known member
I watch them feed through a clear feeder many times and have never seen the tongue still in the water - it is moving in and out of the bill repeatedly. The concensus among researchers is that hummingbirds do not sip through a straw.
I think you're dismissing the Bush's research much too hastily. The wording of the NYT article strongly implies that he & his associates actually observed the "straw" (via photography, I would imagine).
“The hummingbird’s tongue looks like a straw with a slot cut in it,”
Dr. Bush said."
The article then goes on to say that the nectar is pulled up through the straw by surface tension not by "sipping".
. . .(B)ecause of the surface tension, the slot in the cylindrical tongue
zips closed, beginning from the tip. The nectar is drawn upward, and the
cylinder fills. The hummingbird then scrapes its tongue clean and swallows.
Amazingly, it repeats this process 20 times a second as it feeds."
So, the upshot seems to be that hummingbird tongues form straws alright, but ones working on very different principles from soda fountain straws in soft drinks.
Tz'unun
Featherless Biped
This is a pretty accurate description (I would have hedged more on the lick rate, which in one study ranged from 10/sec. to 25/sec.), but the article's title and illustration definitely leave an inaccurate and contradictory impression in readers' minds. :C
Ornithologists have also known for a long time that the semi-tubular structure of hummingbirds' tongues acts like a capillary tube (employing surface tension) and not like a drinking straw (employing suction). I suppose it's "new" to these physicists and mathematicians, though, and I don't remember seeing a prior description of the "zipping" closure of the tongue cavity as the fluid fills it.
humminbird
Well-known member
Thanks Sheri and fugl for pointing out that the title of the article leaves a lot to be desired. I did read the article in a little more detail later, and I guess the research is "new" to physicists, though like Sheri says, long known.
I also watch them thru clear plastic bottom feeders (the bowl type) and while feeding the nectar is alive with wavelets, so there must be some movement of parts while feeding, I think
