These migrants don’t care about your politics. But they do demand sugar water
Kathy and I take in migrants from Mexico or Central America every summer and although it requires us to change our lifestyle a bit, it’s worth the effort to know that we are helping them nurture and protect their family members. They don’t talk much — probably the language barrier — so we don’t know much about the specifics of their journey, like where the trip actually began and how long the journey was.
Our migrants only stay for the summer and then head back to their winter home, where they rest up in preparation for the return trip north to raise their young. By now, you may have figured out that our migrants are hummingbirds who use our house to nest. Therefore, they have no Wall to overcome nor are they subjected to misleading, erroneous statements about their backgrounds or experiences from the president of the United States.
It all started years ago when I purchased a small trapeze so hummingbirds could sit on it and wait their turn at the nearby feeder, one of four we hang around our house. That’s right! You can buy a miniature trapeze for hummingbirds. My family filed my purchase under the category of A Fool’s Errand and had a grand old time poking fun at my purchase to give the smallest birds in the animal kingdom a place to rest.
Until a Momma Hummingbird dropped by one summer and eyed my trapeze as the site to raise her young. Apparently, she fell in love with the curb appeal. It was under an eave of the house on its most protected side. She built a nest slightly larger than a thimble about 2 inches deep on the edge of the trapeze bar. Every year she returns — or one of her kids — since hummingbirds only live an average of three to five years. (A hummingbird is “long in the tooth” when it’s only 4 years old!) It usually takes a couple of days of house cleaning to spruce the place up and rehab a bit, but then she sits and waits for the magic moment when two eggs hatch and she prepares to feed her babies.
Feeding baby hummingbirds is no bird walk! It requires lots of flying around nabbing bugs to feed those pesky kids. The feeders of sugar water and the flowers that attract hummingbirds are fine for the adults, but those kids need protein so she’s off every morning to shop for unsuspecting bugs who have no idea they are about to serve as the main course for the hummingbird kids.
Apparently, hummingbirds have their own version of TripAdvisor or Travelocity. A few years after we hosted our first Momma Hummingbird, another one arrived and built the same kind of nest on one of those hooks used to hang planters right next to our front door. This required a whole new level of care that we did not anticipate. The original nest on the side of the house required no adjustment to our daily lives over summer. In fact, it provided considerable enjoyment for Kathy since it’s right outside the window where her desk is and she can observe how Momma is doing daily and also monitor the feeders for refills.
The nest next to the front door of the house, however, required some rearranging of our daily routine. We learned early on that leaving the house by the front door scared Momma off the nest. Even more upsetting to Momma was turning the front porch light on after dark, whereupon she would freak out and dive-bomb the windows above the front door. Neighbors will notice there is no porch light on at our house in the summer until Momma raises those kids and moves them off the nest. We enter and leave our home through the garage so as not to disturb the summer residents. You might say we are godparents as we root for those “young’uns” to make it successfully out of the nest.
There are at least five species of hummingbirds that make their way to Idaho and you can serve as a host for these migrants if you’re willing to invest in sugar water. And you might even attract a nester if you buy a trapeze. If the family makes fun of your purchase, send them to this column.
When it comes to feeding the hummingbirds, don’t fall for that red sugar water or powder they sell in stores. That’s just red dye their little bodies can do without, and the color red makes no difference in attracting them. Apparently, they know what a hummingbird feeder looks like. Just boil water, then add sugar in ratio of 4 parts water and 1 part table sugar, stir, wait for it to cool and you are ready to fill the feeder for a tasty hummingbird treat.
Once they find the feeder, then you are in for a treat all your own. Hummingbird Wars in true Star Wars fashion! They are quite territorial and do not like competitors at the feeder. Dive bombers keep away any latecomers to the feeder. This next piece of hummingbird lore may be giving way too much credit to their small “bird brains,” but Kathy and I are convinced they hover around our office windows at home when the feeders are empty or haven’t been changed recently. (The experts recommend changing the sugar water regularly.) As much as to say, “Hey, see me in the window staring you down? We need fresh sugar water in the feeder. Get with it, will you?”
So get with it. Feed a hummingbird this summer. You may even become a godparent!
This story was originally published June 9, 2019 at 2:28 AM.