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Invite the hummers in; they might just stay

I don't mean to brag, but I've got hummingbirds at my house.

You, too? Darn, and here I thought I was special.

Scott Lukens of the Backyard Bird Shop can't remember a better winter for hummingbirds. He sees four regulars coming for cocktails at his house and notes that they're the most common bird at his feeders this year.

Lukens speculates that the increase might be a result of more people planting the hummingbirds' favorite flowers in their gardens. But most of their favorite foods are gone now. So how did we get so lucky?

It boggles my mind how these tiny birds can find enough to eat in the Northwest during the offseason. Only one breed of hummingbird (Anna's hummingbird) is brave enough to stick around. You'll recognize the Anna's because it's the only hummingbird with an iridescent head and bright red throat.

Anna's doesn't migrate like the rufous, even though the rufous is the most common summer hummingbird in Portland.

I recently noticed the Anna's feeding on the yellow flowers of a flowering maple (Abutilon "Kennish Belles") outside my garden room window. I rushed downstairs to grab the feeder. I haven't moved so fast in months, realizing that a feeder is a surefire way to keep hummingbirds around. Their little tongues lap up that sugar water 13 times a second (I wonder which researcher got that job: "Here, Ralph, keep your eye on this bird and count how many times you see its tongue.")

Anyway, to make sure my male and female Anna's don't high-tail it out of here, I'm cooking up hummingbird food as we speak. I make a double batch and keep it in the refrigerator for up to two weeks (a new batch is ready every three days for refills). The recipe is easy.

Homemade hummingbird nectar

• 4 cups water
• 1 cup granulated white sugar

Bring water to a boil. Slowly add the sugar into boiling water until dissolved. (Note: Don't use honey, powdered or brown sugar, or red dye! These other sugars cause a fungus on the tongues of hummingbirds and kill them.) Refill feeders every three days and be vigilant about washing out the feeders. Sugar grows mold very quickly.

Even without the sugar water feeders, Anna's hummingbirds are very resourceful this time of year, Lukens says. They have a keen eye for food to keep that metabolism at hyperspeed. The largest Anna's weighs less than a nickel and has a heart rate of more than a thousand beats per minute.

That brings us to another reason the Anna's can stay in our gardens now. These tiny torpedoes go into a mini-hibernation at night called "torpor." The birds' metabolism slows down, their heart rate is vastly reduced, their body temperature drops drastically and so does their need for high-calorie sweets. Isn't nature grand?

If Anna's hummingbirds find enough to eat at your place now, they'll stay around for nesting in February and March.

And here's where gardeners get extra bonus points. Hummingbirds are nature's insecticide; they eat the flying, crawling pests you're trying to kill. They are voracious insect eaters. Anna's eat more insects and spiders than any other hummingbird, and because Portland hasn't had a hard winter in years, we've still got some good juicy spiders to enjoy.

So in the winter, supplement their insect diet with a feeder and beckon them the rest of the year by planting their favorite flowers. As I've discovered, the hummingbirds of winter make you feel special, even if you aren't!

Flowers that hummingbirds love:

• Bee balm
• Butterfly bush
• Flowering maple
• Fuchsia
• Red flowering currant
• Salvia
• Western redbud
• Weigela

Hummingbird Patrol Update:

This weather has been hard for us, but imagine what the birds are saying! Please remember to put out suet feeders and seed (black oil seeds are best) to feed most of the birds. They’ll need extra food when theirs is covered and remember they’ve missed so many meals by now they may be starved. Hanging pinecone slathered with peanut butter from a tree limb works too.

As for the hummingbirds: Many of us, including statewide Master Gardener coordinator Jan McNeilan, have been very worried about the Anna’s hummingbirds survival. Many of these hummingbirds winter over here and do not migrate. Jan McNeilan and I were talking about changing feeders every hour or so to keep the sugar water from freezing. Interestingly enough we both got up at the crack of dawn to start the vigil. But with these temp’s it is a constant job. (Even my mother has been doing this!) I finally went down to the hardware store and bought a heat lamp and floodlight bulb, total cost of about $10 dollars, and put the heat light up above my feeder. Look for a heat lamp which comes with a clamp to hold it in place. Funny story: The man at the hardware store asked me if the heat lamp was to keep my water pipes from freezing under the house. NOPE. Just to keep the hummingbirds alive. He thought I was nuts…. ‘nuf said.

Good news here, the little male hummingbird has been hitting the feeder a lot and the lamp system has been working. He stays much longer under the light to warm up and it has been a joy to behold. I have not seen to two females. So…..

Point to remember, I tried a different kind of light (without a reflector around the bulb) and it really did not keep the liquid sugar water from freezing. So, we know that doesn’t work. 

If you get a change you might want to try these idea’s. Otherwise, don’t despair, the hummingbirds can go into a sort of hibernation called “torpor” which allows them to greatly reduce their metabolism.