“If we refill our hummer feeder, will we discombobulate their migration schedule?”
Our morning concern yesterday weighed heavily enough on us that I did some quick research. After all, we didn’t want our zooming little “pets” to stick around too long and then experience . . . ah . . . “weather issues” here in northwest Oregon.
We replenished the feeder with our usual homemade hummingbird juice, because…
I’m happy to tell you that you can leave your hummingbird feeders up as long as hummingbirds are visiting them. And then a week or so longer, just in case a straggler comes through.
[…]
So your hummingbird feeder is not going to tempt the hummers to overstay their schedule. In fact, the sugar water you offer will help the hummingbirds “gas up” for their journey. Hummingbirds that are already on their way south can stop by and replenish their stores, too.
[…]
Sometimes a late hummingbird straggles by long after all the others have gone. This might be a young bird that hatched late in the season and that wasn’t ready to migrate when the others left. I’m glad to be able to offer a little extra help.
Thank you for the reassurance, Diane Porter!
Melissa Mayntz confirmed what Diane said (or else it was the other way around):
It is one of the most common bird feeding myths that feeding hummingbirds will prevent them from migrating – in fact, savvy birders put their hummingbird feeders up early in the spring and keep them up late in the fall so the birds have a ready food source no matter how local flowers are blooming.
Hummingbirds are neat little creatures and I’m glad we have a few that come to our feeder, like this one that came to our feeder in 2009:
near Yoder, Oregon
And here’s another hummer photo I took in 2009, though this one is in Mexico:
watching over her nest in Santa María, Sonora, Mexico
In closing… 🙄
 
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