Hummingbird dilemas

A favorite summer pastime of mine is to watch the hummingbirds come to our feeders.  Sometimes they will get very close to me while I sit on our deck--which is thrilling!  I love to hear all the twittering as the male, in a U-shaped-diving display defends his territory (the feeder).  I have also see the birds display aggression towards each other by shifting back and forth on a horizontal plane with tail feathers spread out.

We have been feeding and watching these birds since our oldest was about 5 and did a science fair project on "Which Color Do Hummingbirds Prefer".  No we did not add different color dyes--we used different color feeders.

The dye question is a source of much  rumor  There are some commonly held myths like "red dye makes hummingbird egg shells soft".  For some reason, the people who say this are confusing the DDT problem of hawks and eagles with hummingbirds.  There is, however,  some anecdotal evidence of beak and liver tumors from red dye, so it is really best to avoid the dye.  there is enough red on most feeders to attract the birds.

Recipe for Hummingbird Nectar  One thing to remember with the nectar--keep it fresh!  If it starts to look cloudy, it is spoiled and will harm the birds.  The commercial feeders that we have purchased in the past are just too big for the quantity our hummers consume in a day (or two).

So we use red spray paint caps that my husband modified by putting a screw in it and through a small suction cup holder.  We only put about one half cup nectar in each one, but place several in the windows around our house.  This helps the birds spread out--and avoids some of that aggression.  It does make the window messy--and attracts ants, spiders, etc, but this is just more food for the birds.

This is exactly how our daughter conducted her science fair project, except she used paint caps from different color spray paint cans.  What did she discover?  Hummingbirds do favor the color red.  Perhaps more interesting was the fact that the green caps received fewer visits from the birds.

Besides the controversial red dye, hummingbirds are facing another potential danger (and other animals as well).  Global climate change can through the birds and the flowers they depend on for nectar out of sync.  A recent study reported in  Science Daily  postulates about the effect of early flowering on the migrating birds, especially in the northern part of the range.

In light of this, perhaps feeding the hummingbirds is more important than just a fun pastime; maybe it will help the birds' survival.