More Fun with Time-lapse

Here's one of our hummingbird feeders and you can see it is doing a brisk business.  We have five species that use it, though not on a regular basis.  The Rufous-tailed Hummingbird and the White-belled Emerald are year-round users.  The Green-breasted Mango and the White-necked Jacobin are seasonal, appearing sometime after Christmas and staying until October or thereabouts.  Finally, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, familiar in many parts of North America, is an infrequent seasonal visitor.

When we first put out the feeders 20 years ago, we had no takers.  We dumped out the spoiling nectar weekly.  It took a Ruby-throat, familiar with feeders in North America, to show the way.  It's amazing that a tiny bird on migration recognized a feeder, but it did.  Once the Rufous-tails saw the Ruby-throats cleaning up at the feeders, they were quickly on board.  And from there it just grew and grew.  These days we often go through a quart of nectar daily ... and that is conservative!  If we kept the feeders constantly topped up, it would be twice that!  When they are ready for more nectar, the hummers fly to the doors ... or the windows ... or bombard us to make sure we get the message!