Date: 10/05/2015

Number: 3

Husband saw 2 hummingbirds around 9:30AM feeding at Sage flowers rt. below feeder & at feeder. No more visual activity until 2-3 PM (inside window watch). Large female(our regular) came & lingered at the feeder. After she left our smaller female came to do her quick 3 second feeding(she is quiet nervous during her feedings) while the large one looks rather content to stay for longer periods of time(longest time clocked so far 1 min.& 20 sec. Tonight during last watch- 6 pm-7:06 pm (CST). I noticed both regulars feeding at different times(never encountering each other at the feeder). The large one came twice and so did the smaller one. But then we must have gotten a visitor.This large female had more belly fat than our 2 regulars & she could not figure out how to use feeder. Her desire to feed was very strong. Kept coming to feeder from underneath. Using 4-port Flower Perkey Pet with flower & bee guards removed as Hummers seem to prefer it this way. She tried & tried but never found the portal. She found some droplets underneath each arm & finally went to each one removing them hovering the whole time. She was forced to go to a nearby flower as she needed the fuel. After the second time I finally decided to rush out & put one flower with one bee guard on one port to see if that would help her figure it out. I even tried changing to the larger feeder. Ended up with 2 feeders near each other. She never figured it out. Really puzzled me was due to her size & it being so late in the season. I have send the younger ones displaying this behavior before they learn how to navigate the feeders but not older birds. She did not appear to be sick. I also went out to tilt the feeder to form more droplets but she never came back. I saw 1 hummer chasing another one so I think it may have been her that got chased away. I really thought this was one of the easiest feeders to figure out without flowers & bee guards on. I later had 2 more visits from our regulars but the visitor never came back & it got too dark to feed (unless she went to the feeder further away from me). In all my 40 years of watching I have never seen a older Hummer do this behavior unless indeed she had never used one before. I do not know of any feeders that feed the birds with the ports pointing straight down to the ground. Flowers do this but not feeders. So I have to assume she has never used a feeder before. Weather today Low-57 degrees, High-78, partly cloudy.

Denton, TX

Latitude: 33.2 Longitude: -97.1

Observed by: Bonnie
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