2006 Rescue & Release

Hummingbird wars in your yard? You're not alone! During the fall of the year, Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds are very active in N. Mississippi gardens searching for food.

About ten species of hummingbirds have ranges north of Mexico, but only the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird is seen east of the Mississippi River. Hummingbirds range as far north as Canada during the spring and summer. They return to the area where they were born to nest, then migrate to Central America for the winter. During the spring and fall they pass through Mississippi along their flyway. About 170,000 hummingbirds have been banded in North America in the last century; but none has ever been reported as recovered or recaptured on the wintering grounds in Mexico or Central America.

Their flight to Central America is non-stop over the Gulf of Mexico. To prepare for this long flight, they need to store as much food as possible before heading out over the water where no food is available to them. Thus, they are fighting for feeder time in our gardens.

It takes our hummingbirds about 20 hours to fly the 525 mile, non-stop journey to migrate across the Gulf of Mexico, then there is the additional mileage to wherever they live during our winter. Normal flight speed for a hummingbird is 25 to 30 mph, but hummers can dive at speeds of up to 60 mph and are the only bird that can fly forward, backward, shift sideways and stop in mid-air. Hummingbirds perch quite frequently, but they have weak feet and must fly to change positions on their perch, where they will spend time preening between defending each new food source as they migrate home.

Hummingbirds love to feed from flowers more than from feeders. If you can plant a natural hummingbird garden to attract the most hummingbirds. To turn your yard into a hummingbird garden, you need to have as many of their favorite flower colors blooming through fall: red, pink or orange. You can use annuals that bloom all season (e.g. honeysuckle) or perennials that will flower one after the other (e.g. Rose of Sharon). Even if you don't have abundant reds, oranges and pinks, hummers will adapt if their favorite colored flowers aren't available nearby. Survival takes precedence over preference, and insects and bats are unable to penetrate tubular flowers, so those flowers are left for the hungry hummingbirds.

Adding a red feeder to your porch with a mixture of 1 part sugar with 4 parts water will attract these speed warriors close to your windows. Please leave feeders out until all of the hummingbirds have migrated. They will leave when they are strong enough; your feeder will not make them stay. Prepare the sugar/water mixture by boiling then cooling. You can keep extra in your refrigerator. NEVER use honey, artificial sweeteners or red food coloring. The red color of the feeder is sufficient to attract the birds and the food coloring is not healthy for them or for us! The sugar water will ferment in the heat, so change it every few days to keep it healthy and clean. Birds can't smell what they eat.

Early Spanish explorers called hummers flying jewels, because the male has a colorful ruby colored gorget (throat) which is iridescent, and when they catch the sunlight the color can change entirely. The females are not flashy in color, but are 15-20% larger. Hummingbirds have a short life span of only 1-5 years.

Eating almost its weight in nectar or sugar water each day, the hummers sword shaped bill protects a long and sensitive forked tongue that it uses to lick its nectar source 3 to 13 times a second, and they eat every 10 minutes. A diet of sugar water alone will kill a rescued hummer, so MWR volunteers must also include insects in an injured or orphaned hummingbird's diet for proper rehabilitation. Hummingbirds pollinate our plants and help with insect control by eating many small insects in our yards - so don't poison them!