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| Remember, hummers are BIG eaters! No animal on earth has a faster metabolism-roughly 100 times that of an elephant. Hummingbirds burn food so fast they often eat 1.5 to 3 times their body weight in food per day! THINK: What would happen if a hummer drank a big amount of cold nectar? "This is an interesting question", wrote Laura Erickson. "If hummingbirds are sitting on the perch of a feeder with very chilled fluid, they can get so suddenly cold that they can keel over like this. They are very vulnerable to predators in this state, and need help to survive if the sun doesn't warm them quickly." "Because this is rare, researchers haven't been able to corroborate this. It doesn't happen very often, but if you actually see it happen to one of YOUR hummingbirds, it can be just plain awful. "The best way to prevent this is to bring in the hummingbird feeders overnight, to set out warmed hummingbird fluid at first light each day, or to use feeders without perches. When the birds have to keep beating their wings to feed, their working muscles heat their bodies." |
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