I have the bad habit of leaving the garage door in up position and unfortunately hummingbirds go in there and get trapped. They must be attracted to my husband's bright yellow dirt bike, then for some reason they fly up and get trapped between the ceiling and the horizontal open door. They fly to exhaustion unable to figure out how to exit.

I usually catch them in a net and let them loose. But yesterday it was too late, one was laying on the floor, covered with cobwebs. It's eyes were closed and it was barely alive. I carefully cleaned off the sticky webs and took it inside and dipped it's beak in some hummingbird food i keep in fridge for the feeder. Could see it's throat feathers moving, so it may have been getting some of it. But then i noticed a sticky clump of webs on its beak and got them off with a q-tip. After that, you could really tell it was drinking, because it's tounge kept lashing out. It appeared to be forked or split because it was like two fine filaments. I kept dipping its beak in the sugar water and soon its eyes opened and shortly thereafter it started struggling to get away. So i took it outside and opened my hands and it flew to a nearby tree.

I'm going to try harder to keep the garage door shut.

Plinker

Jordan,

Have read that they expend so much energy flying that they have high metabolism and require a tremendous amount of energy. Figured it was out of fuel. If you have a HB feeder you know they feed often. Yes, i agree, hummingbirds are fascinating!

Plinker

I have understood that it isn't good to put colored sugar water in the feeders as it's only empty calories. That they need vit. and min. to make the flight across the Gulf otherwise they'll die enroute.
I have been getting "food" from the store but does anyone know of a proper formula?

Thanks,

Don

Hummingbird food formula

SHERRY’S HUMMINGBIRD FORMULA – UC DAVIS

In a blender, mix:

3 oz. Honey
2 teaspoons Superpreen
5 teaspoons Geveral Protein Powder (order from drug store)
2 teaspoons Low fat soy powder (Health food store)
¼ teaspoon pollen granules (Health food store)
1 teaspoon Avitron or Avivite Avian vitamins
1 teaspoon Ledderplex Liquid Vitamin B complex
(Ledderly Labs – order from drug store)
4 teaspoons Gerber strained beef
2 teaspoons Gerber strained carrots
2 teaspoons mealworms (about 50)

- Mix with 14oz. hot water in a blender. Makes 17oz. With honey.

-Blend at high speed for 10 mins. Add enough water to make 32oz.

-Let set, will be foamy. Strain (an old clean nylon stocking is good), put in ice cube trays and freeze



JUDY EVERETT’S HUMMINGBIRD FORMULA

From Jean

1 cup Gerber High Protein Cereal
1 jar baby strained chicken
1 jar baby applesauce
1-2 teaspoons Superspreen
heaping teaspoon calcium
50 mg tablet B vitamin
¼ teaspoon Brewer’s yeast powder

- Mix. Freeze in ice cube trays or small sauce cup

Thank you for the H'Bird formulas.

I copied it to my recipies area. I hope I don't get these confused with my pheasant sause

Don

What is superspreen?

Yea, I found a croaked dove in the garage last summer. Good idea to keep the garage doors closed.

I am assuming that the formulas all eventually strain out to just a liquid, that is put in the feeders?

Has anyone tried these personally in feeders? Are they visited more than just feeders with sugar water?

Thanks

Plinker,

Its not the yellow dirt bike that is attracting them, its the red release handle on your garage door opener. They think it is a feeder. I had several get trapped in my garage until I figured that out.

Once inside, they dont seem to understand that they have to fly down to get out the open garage door, they just keep bouncing off the ceiling, which is usually painted white and I assume they associate with the sky.

After Painting my release handle gold, I havent had a problem.


Regards,

Dan

Wow,

Didn't realize this thread was 2 years old!

Many years ago I worked for a guy who used to collect bats in British Guiana for the Royal Ontario Museum. We set the mist nests up over streams. If we did not get them down before daylight they filled up with humming birds and we spent the morning unsnagging and releasing humming birds.

What is most astonishing is the number of species in South America. There are something like 157 species in British Guian alone. Lovely flying, living jewels.

You probably know that it takes almost dozen hummingbirds to make a decent sandwich.

quote:

Originally posted by DanM:

After Painting my release handle gold, I havent had a problem.


Regards,

Dan

Good idea, just in case.

In the woodlands of central Canada in the winter there is almost noting in the bush to eat except chickadees. They too are 12 to a sandwich. I often thought a mist net would make a handy survival tool. But they are illegal to possess. The fact is most survival tools that actually work like mist nets and fish nets are illegal to possess.

Ted,
Going after hummingbirds with a .410 probably wouldn't be a high percentage undertaking. I didn't know that about central Canada and chickadees, but then I know almost nothing about Canada, I am sorry to say.

The eastern Canadian wilderness in winter is suprisingly lifeless. The moose gather in yards so there are many some places but none over vast areas. The bears are hibernating. The porcupines are relatively immobile in somke crevice in a rock coveerd with snow. The birds with the exception on chickadees and woodpeckers have gone south. There are some grouse and red squirrels and some years many snowshoe hares but other years almost no hares at all. They are very cyclic.

Beavers are common and active but under the ice so you never see them. they cut and stoire their food under the ice so they don't have to expose themselves to wolves. Otters are active but how I don't know. You seldom see them and ice sits in the water. They must have breathing holes.

Wolves have to travel enormous distances to make a living. Often 20 miles a night. Very difficult to get enough to eat if you ski plane goes down.

I once went winter moose hunting near the Abitibi River. Its easy to track them during a thaw when the snow is soft and melting and thus noiseless. But if its cold it gets hard and cruchy you can't get near them. Alot harder to get than a buffalo.

The days are short. Its dark at 4 pm. It get so cold at night that the sap in the poplar trees pops and makes a noise like a gun shot. The ice in the lakes yaws and buckles in the cold and makes it sound like there is a monster moaning under the ice.

At night you have the northern lights pulsating green and red over head and wherever there are moose there are wolves so you hear them howling at night but you never see them.

I like it alot but the problems are much different than in Africa. You have to be aware of things like currents where streams enter the lake because the ice will be thin and you will slide under the ice.

The thing I hate most about the anti-trapping movement is that if trapping stopped a whole culture of people (northern trapers) who know how to live comfortably in this enviroment would soon disappear.

The northern trappers are the best field naturalist in Canada in the same way that African trackers are the best field naturalists in Africa. See lots of things that you would otherwise miss.