![]() : For the basin style feeders, we can now recommend a hummingbird heater, the Hummingbird Hearth Heater (left). This is the most important tip to keep the hummers alive. So keep their feeders out until 6 pm and then rehang a fresh, warm feeder first thing in the morning.ģ) Use an external heat source to keep the feeder from freezing. While sleeping they enter a mini-hibernation or torpor where their bodies' metabolism approaches zero. They will feed heavily at your feeders at dusk and then go into thick bushes, like cedar hedges or junipers, to sleep. ![]() Unfortunately, their brain freeze can result in them fainting and falling off the perch so we don't recommend it.įollow these tips to help your hummingbirds survive.ġ) Hang the feeder in a protected spot out of the wind.Ģ) Bring your feeder in at night to prevent freezing. Re-hang them in the morning with warm solution - when hummingbirds drink cold liquid they can experience a "brain-freeze" (similar to what happens to us when we drink a cold slurpee too fast). Most winters, simply bringing the feeder in at night once they have had their last feeding is all that is required. If you see a hummingbird appear at your window in November and you do not want to feed him in January, do not put out your feeder and he will move onto another yard. But when the north wind begins to blow and the temperatures plummet, it becomes very important that their feeders remain ice-free.įeeding hummingbirds in the winter is possible, although it requires a commitment on your part to feed them all winter long. ![]() And as long as the temperatures remain seasonal without winds, they do just fine. During the cold nights, the hummingbirds shelter in thick shrubs or hedges and enter a torpid state - basically a mini-hibernation where their heartbeat, respiration and metabolic rate approaches zero. They have learned to eat sap from woodpecker holes, small insects found both trapped in the sap and flying free (this hummingbird eats more insects than any other hummingbird species) and there are always some winter flowers, early catkins and of course, feeders. The Anna's hummingbirds have adapted well to surviving in cooler temperatures. We have also seen their range slowly expand outwards from Abbotsford to nearby Agassiz, Chilliwack and Harrison. Over the past several years, the numbers of Anna's have been steadily growing - some content to be merely winter visitors while others stay all year and duke it out with those pesky Rufous hummingbirds for a summer yard. And yes, their appearance does cause a fair degree of panic to some people - hummingbirds are NOT supposed to be here in the winter! But for the past 10-20 years (since early 2000's), the Anna's hummingbird have been calling this part of the valley their winter home.Īnd they haven't just been visiting here, they have been thriving. Although this may not seem to make sense, residents of the Abbotsford area know that every November they may be seeing a welcome visitor to their yards.
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