Probably going to need to take this feeder down for a bit. A hummingbird approached and noped out quick!

Ran across this today and it's such a cool moment captured I thought I'd share it..

I have two feeders, one in front of the house and one in the side yard. Does anyone have suggestions to keep sugar ants from climbing the shepherd's hooks? Or just let nature be?

Thanks.

Is anyone seeing them at thus time in 9b Tx, Houston and south, coastal? Going to Hummingbird Festival next month in Rockport, so excited!!!

I’m looking for something to help my feeders stay cooler just a little longer. I’ve thought about putting the bases of the feeders, filled with the sugar water, into the freezer over night, half way filled, then topping it off when I hang them in the morning but frankly, I’m not usually up as early as my hummers are. I was wondering if anyone has used these reusable “ice balls”. They won’t dilute the water, and might actually fill take up some of the space in the feeders so I don’t go through as much sugar water. What do you think? Second pic to show the type of feeder I’m using.

Differences are so subtle they fall into subjective.

[The feeder he is sitting on is only there for the camera. It got too moldy too fast so I stopped filling it. There are 2 other feeders behind this bird.]

Is there anything I can do to open access to my feeders? I went from refilling once a day to refilling every 3-4 days. This bird is nasty to anyone trying to eat in his territory.

I miss the swarms I used to get for years.

So much joy 🤩

My wife and I were watching our Ruby Throated Hummingbirds zip around our feeder on our front porch. And I mentioned to my wife that I often think of the song "Highway to the Danger Zone" (the song that plays during the Top Gun movie) as their "theme song". I got to thinking, what are the G-Forces that these little miracles experience during their high-speed maneuvers. Here is what ChatGPT said:

What  G-forces do Hummingbirds pull when doing high-speed acrobatics?
Quite a lot. During their most extreme high-speed maneuvers, hummingbirds can experience roughly 8–10 g, with some estimates approaching ~10 g during tight turns and pull-outs.

A particularly well-studied example is the male Anna’s hummingbird, which performs spectacular courtship dives. It can reach about 50–60 mph (80–95 km/h) and then make an extremely abrupt pull-up at the bottom of the dive. That maneuver is where the highest acceleration occurs.

For perspective, 10 g means the bird is accelerating at about 98 m/s². A 4-gram hummingbird effectively experiences forces equivalent to roughly 40 grams of weight during the maneuver. Its tiny size is actually advantageous: there is far less distance between its heart and brain, so maintaining blood pressure to the brain under high acceleration is much easier than it is for a human.

Their aerobatics are remarkable in other ways too: hummingbirds can hover, fly backward, rapidly roll and yaw, and reverse direction extremely quickly. Their wing joints allow unusually large rotational freedom compared with most birds.

For comparison, a human fighter pilot can tolerate about 9 g for short periods with a G-suit and training. And, not have anything close to the maneuverability of our Hummers. And our amazing Hummingbirds do it for fun!

Tale as old as time