Holler Hummer Home~

On By cindy knokeIn Birds, Conservation, HOLLER HAPPENINGS, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, REVERIES, Uncategorized

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This hummingbird has quite a long tongue for a tiny little creature doesn’t he?
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It’s good to be home, because the Holler Hummer’s live here, and I missed them!
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I counted 35 today, at our three, 40 ounce feeders.
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Anna’s, Black Chinned, Allen’s and Rufous hummingbirds live at The Holler.
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I read in an online hummingbird forum that people don’t believe that feeders get more than one or two birds each.
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They should stop by The Holler around 6pm when each feeder is mobbed by more than 10 hummers.
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Hummers have the largest brain to body mass of any bird in the world i.e., they are clever little buzzers.
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These tiny birds can migrate 1000’s of miles.
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But many call the Holler home year round.
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Which is why, there is no place like home!
Cheers to you from the astonishing, numerous, and quite clever, Holler Hummers~

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290 thoughts on “Holler Hummer Home~”

    2. You must be so chuffed with the large contingent of these gorgeous birds that visit you, and the images you have managed to capture of them. Well done!

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      2. I think the air force should study them! Maybe they do. These creatures are the most phenomonal fliers in the airspace of the earth. They hover. They are the only bird that flies backwards. They do figure 8’s in the air before I can catch it with my camera. I love hawks, and they live here. It is an easy detante between hawks and hummers at The Holler. Hawks spend their time pursuing creatures they have a greater probability to catch!

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  5. Those are amazing photos! I never knew hummingbirds had those iridescent green feathers–they’re always moving so quickly. I’ve seen them once or twice here, but nothing like what you have! Beautiful!

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  11. I love Hummingbirds. We have some every year, they like the feeder, but they although hang out on my plants. The pictures are stunning. May I ask what camera you use? I am planning to buy a camera soon and would like to get some input.

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    1. I have a Sony HX400. It has 1200mm equivalent zoom. So you never need to change a lens. I also never use a tripod. I love it, and it is very reasonably priced. Let me know what you decide.

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      1. I can imagine! They are so cute! I have a coworker who has feeders and one flew in to his window and he thought it was gone so he picked it up and it started blinking and then flew off! I have photos of it! If that was me I would have known what to do! He said Momma Kitty saw him fall so good thing he picked it up! He said it flew over to the fence and sat there are awhile! They are amazing little birds! 😄

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      2. This is so remarkable you said this. Some cats pick up incapacitated hummingbirds and bring them intact to their owners, as if to say please fix this. Of course many cats would kill them when incapacitated, but the one’s that don’t, count on their owners to save them. Some domestic dogs do the same thing. It is nothing short of amazing.

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  14. Delighted you are home for a bit and oh the lovely pictures of the hummers. Of course multiples feed from one source. In Monterey and NC both we’d often have 10 or more at a large feeder. Like you, we used the largest feeders we could find. I loved having some of the blown glass feeders around the garden but those always started fights, even when I filled them with nothing but water. I set up the fly-through hummer shower but with a heat index of 105, nothing is moving, not even me – except to water and such. You have perfect shots.

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    1. I have not heard of the fly through hummer shower! I have several bird baths they use in the morning. Did they actually fly through and take a shower? If they did, I clearly need one! 😉 😉

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      2. Yes, I have dealt with the territorial issue too. But hummers do, also, in fact cooperate. You can see the difference most clearly when the sun starts to set, and all hummers become friends, since at night they don’ fly. For survival they need to stop fighting and eat to get through the night. Bickering stops like magic near sunset.

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  16. Multiple hummingbirds!!! That is so special for me here in the north east US. We have a couple here and some opportunists swinging by.
    I am still in awe at a group of them – right there!
    Wonderful capture Cindy!

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    1. I have even bigger group shots. My daughter filmed all of them together. We have a dining table under them and they buzz around us, and our guests, during dinner. I swear they are going to land on the table and join in the conversation!

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  18. Beautiful shots of these darling birds! We’ve never had more than two at one time feeding, so I’m blown away at how many hungry guests you have! Must be magic in those feeders, ha!

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    1. I think they must like all the empty acres and orchards around The Holler. They certainly are not the least bit afraid of us. They buzz in a stationary manner a couple inches from my nose when they want me to fill the feeders!

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    1. Sharon, I am going to check out this organization. Sounds like an organization I should learn about . I am going to post the orioles and orange eaters next. We have a station going for them and we are getting slews of citrus and nectar eating birds, some I need to look up, as I don’t know what they are! Thank you my friend for your support of the wild birds, for the reblog, and for introducing me to this organization!

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    1. I went over the course of seven years at The Holler, from 8 ounce feeders, to 16 ounce, to 32, to 40, and now I have 40 ouncers and one big gulp, a 72 ouncer!

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  22. Yay, more hummingbird pictures! Can’t get enough of them, and you have such a great photo opportunity with such a population there! Your hummers are more willing to share than ours.

    Once, I’d taken Nikita outside in her travel cage and we were sitting off to one side, behind our man-made waterfall (which offered a barrier between the feeder and our table), a good 15 feet away and one lone ruby-throat had the guts to try to chase us away! It was so funny. He flashed his ruby throat at Nikita first (but she just sat still, casually, in the middle of her cage – not understanding the hummer’s body language maybe). Then he pivoted and flashed his ruby throat at me. Interesting that he’d dare gang up on 2 bigger animals sitting side by side! 😛 ~Lynn

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    1. Either that or he liked one or both of you! 😉 It is interesting that hummers do that fly 60 feet up in the air, hover, and then dive bomb down at something, for a couple of reasons, for fun, (heck I would do it if I could), for mating purposes to impress a mate, and to attack. Laughing, so I’m not sure if he was threatening you guys, showing off, or liking you! 😉 😉

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      1. True! Either way, whether he was there hatin’ or lovin’ us, it was such a miraculous treat to see him hovering within several inches of our faces! I was sooo happy when it happened! 🙂

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  23. What glorious captures Cindy – the hummers long tongues and little claws always amaze me and you’ve captured them beautifully! 🙂

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  25. I can’t believe that they all co-exist so peacefully. Four feeders here…and you could get seriously knocked on the head as they dive bomb each other for a space at them!

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    1. Laughing, hummingbirds have definite personalities! I had one bully who made life in Hollerdom a hassle. I had to move feeders because he was such a tyrant. He kept a 16 ounce feeder to himself, and drove off any other bird that tried to feed. I was in the ludicrous position of chasing him off. Can’t you just picture this? This goliath chasing off the lilliputian bully? Moving the feeders broke up his monopoly. He reminded me of Donald Trump for heaven’s sake. But our current crop of buzzers are exemplary and most well behaved.
      Let’s just hope it lasts! 😉

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      1. I think he found his way here. I have one that tries to guard three feeders simultaneously. It’s pretty hilarious. I think they take turns being the decoy, while the others swoop in for a quick drink.

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      2. Laughing, yes! These are strategic, cognitive little creatures. I sometimes wonder who has the other figured out better, the hummerbirds, or me.
        I think it would have to be the hummingbirds.

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    1. We even have Costas! They have the flasing purple necks and I got some good shots of them. I hear there are hybrids now too, but I am not expert enough to identify them. People have really helped hummingbird populations grow by planting hummer friendly plants and hanging feeders. I hear they are as far up as Alaska now!

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    1. Man, do these guys guzzle! You would not believe how many 10 pound bags of sugar I buy for them! Grocery checkers ask me, “Are you doing a lot of baking?”
      When I say no, they look at me strangely. 😉 On top of all this nectar, they eat over one hundred bugs a day for protein. They are big little eaters!

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  32. Beautiful clear and detailed photos Cindy; as always!
    However, I hear that the hummers hitch a ride up north on the backs of Canadian Geese. If you can capture a picture of that happening please post it.
    Take care,
    wally

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  33. This may sound silly but when I saw the title, I knew who you would be featuring and I felt slight sigh go through me, “Cindy’s home again!” Home Sweet home with nectar and the charming 🙂 hummimgbirds. Did you have someone stop by daily to keep them satisfied?

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    1. Oh, yes The Holler is never unattended. There are critters here and we have family taking care of things. I so love the hummers so your comments make me happy Robin. Thank you. Sometimes I worry, that I may bore people with them, but they never, ever, bore me.

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    1. They are pretty awesome. I don’t know what they feel like to me, not pets because they are wild, but part of us somehow. They live with us here, many of them year round. We are part of each other’s lives and it is incredible.

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    1. I think this is an Allen. There are more this year. I saw a few last year, but there are more now. We have permanent resident hummers, lots of them, but we are at peak numbers now, as some will migrate thousands of miles south, across oceans, back to Mexico and Central America. It is so incredible. We silly humans may have borders, but they fly over them.

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      2. Yes, we have so much to learn about how to live, and we get glimpses of this from the ‘wild things.’ We just need to watch and learn. I wish we all would.

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    1. Hummingbirds connect us to something mystical. The ancient peoples in South and Central America carved gigantic hummingbird outlines in the rock, only visible from nearby mountains. They are still there today. You can only still see these giant carvings from elevation. It was like the ancient people went high and drew massive hummingbirds low. How did they do this? Why did they do this?
      Tiny hummingbirds tell us we are all part of something so much bigger. It is up to us to puzzle out what it is.

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  45. That’s just really something Cindy! They seem to be ok about sharing the feast. I’ve been changing the food in my feeder every two days for a month, hoping that one would find my feeder. No luck so far. I used to have them all the time at the lake but so far in the city I haven’t seen them. How often do you need to fill up your feeder? Do you have someone do it for you while you’re away? Thanks for sharing your wonderful little visitors with us 😀 x

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    1. This is super important, so thank you so much for asking. Hummers die from fungus in improperly maintained feeders. I’m conservative regarding feeders. A feeder should be changed every 3 days, but Holler hummer consume all the sugar water, in 24 hours so I never have to do this. Plus the feeders need to be sterilized in hot summer months every time you change them. With glass feeders I use boiling water. With plastic I use diluted bleach, rinsed out repeatedly. Hummingbirds do not rely on sugar water entirely, they catch tons of bugs for protein. But the Holler feeders are always up.
      In your situation it seems the lake was where the hummers want to be, so you will get bigger numbers there. They can be lured though, and you are right, to wait for one. Once one finds your feeder, others will come.

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      1. I got some nice natural soap from Wendy at Qtr Acre Lifestyle and had been using it for cleaning my feeder which is a good plastic one from ‘Wild Birds Unlimited. I’ll start to incorporate the diluted bleach too, thanks for sharing that. Next year, I’ll get it out earlier.

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      2. I was thinking of another thing that might help and that is having other birds feeders around, but I bet you already do this. Birds do seem to got check out where other birds are hanging out to see what the big attraction is! We have a large capacity seed feeder at The Holler that brings in dozens of birds daily and a jelly/citrus feeder for the orioles and citrus eaters. The Holler is filled with wild birds, plus we planted bird and butterfly attracting plants, so the combination seems to work beyond my expectations! Good luck and I hope it works.

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  48. What amazing tongues! We don’t have humming birds here in Australia. It was also interesting to read about the brain to body ratio. Stunning close-ups, Cindy. Well done.

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    1. The tongues are pretty incredible aren’t they. They use them to snag small bugs in flight like gnats and fruit flies. They have to catch and eat over a hundred of these daily!

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