I put out a feeder 2days ago, my wife saw the first one yesterday morning, she said that he didn't like it when she moved at the window, it takes a while for them to get used to being watched by giants.

We usually see them arrive in the first week of May. Buy your sugar futures accordingly.

Sometime in April round here. They are neat little buggers.

Looking forward to it.
They, and the Orioles, usually don't get here till the middle of April.

I live in Chicago. I may have never seen a hummingbird in person prior to spending time at my cousin's farm in Indiana last year. He has several feeders and I was fascinated, so much so that I bought a feeder. Do I have any chance of drawing some to it here in Chicago?

Only if they can vote.

We've had a couple at the feeder for about 10 days. don't seem to be sticking around, yet. We've had Orioles nest in our Palms the last two years, my wife saw one and put their feeder out, too.

Usually put my feeder up the first of April, so next week. I'll catch a group flying north during April which are really active as I guess they are filling the tank for their continuing journey. Then there are ones that stay all summer. I see the same ones every day, with one being the alpha bird attempting to chase all intruders away.

Way too early for hummingbirds here, but today I noticed my cardinal pair was back.

quote:

Originally posted by Keystoner:
I live in Chicago. I may have never seen a hummingbird in person prior to spending time at my cousin's farm in Indiana last year. He has several feeders and I was fascinated, so much so that I bought a feeder. Do I have any chance of drawing some to it here in Chicago?

Yes you do. More so if you reside in an area with numerous trees ,shrubs and flowers. MG

Here on the wet side of Washington, we have Anna's Hummingbirds stay year round, so I keep the feeder out in the winter. I'm noticing that the feeder is getting more use, so there are more birds showing up. As the weather gets warmer, Black Chinned Hummers will start showing up, followed by the Rufous Hummingbirds. By midsummer, I'll be going through about 12 oz. of nectar a day.

quote:

Originally posted by midwest guy:

quote:

Originally posted by Keystoner:
I live in Chicago. I may have never seen a hummingbird in person prior to spending time at my cousin's farm in Indiana last year. He has several feeders and I was fascinated, so much so that I bought a feeder. Do I have any chance of drawing some to it here in Chicago?

Yes you do. More so if you reside in an area with numerous trees ,shrubs and flowers. MG

I'm in the NW Burbs and we have a feeder that gets plenty of visitors.

Thank you for reminding me to head over to the bird store for hummingbird stuff.

We had a trio of them here all winter long. I'm curious what you guys do to keep the bees out during the summer? They get so bad here the birds can't get into them.

All that humming going on - you guys are really patient! The worst is when they hum, "Zippidy Do Dah."

Yes the hummers are back.

I got this Black Chinned at the feeder just the other day.

We have 4 feeders up in Murphy, NC and had visitors with hours of hanging them up. Love watching those little guys flit back and forth.

quote:

Originally posted by Sgt Neutron:
Here on the wet side of Washington, we have Anna's Hummingbirds stay year round, so I keep the feeder out in the winter. I'm noticing that the feeder is getting more use, so there are more birds showing up. As the weather gets warmer, Black Chinned Hummers will start showing up, followed by the Rufous Hummingbirds. By midsummer, I'll be going through about 12 oz. of nectar a day.

Same here - I live in Everett, WA.
It is really fun when the weather starts to turn colder, the Anna's get territorial about the feeders and will stake them out and chase off other birds. One bird-per-feeder. One feeder-per-bird. My wife keeps four feeders out in the winter, all out of sight of each other, and we usually have three or four birds that hang out. One year they were so consistent, we could recognize individuals and they got names.

She has rigged up heaters out of plumbing parts and small light bulbs to keep things from freezing on cold nights.

They are really bold little guys too. My wife was carrying a refilled feeder back out to hang up, and an Anna's didn't wait - came in and took a long drink while she was still holding it.