As Portland area residents bundle up against frigid temperatures and bitterly cold winds, hummingbird enthusiasts are reminding anyone with a frozen-over feeder not to forget these high-octane creatures.
Nighttime temperatures Thursday were expected to dip to the low 20s and take their time creeping above freezing into the late morning or early afternoon. Those temperatures, which could repeat Friday into Saturday, are cold enough to freeze the nectar in hummingbird feeders solid.
So residents who adore hummingbirds have taken to social media to ask their neighbors to warm up or replace frozen feeders when needed, possibly even a few times a day. Holly Waud of Southeast Portland tweeted a photo this week of the hummingbird feeder she and her husband have hanging outside of one of their home’s windows.
A few hours into Wednesday’s snowstorm, it was piled high with snow, like it had a giant, perfectly balanced marshmallow on top. Her husband, who regularly checks the feeder on very cold days to make sure it’s not frozen, whisked it inside.
“My husband is the true keeper of the hummingbirds, and he was like ‘It’s covered in snow! I’ve got to clean it off!’” Waud said.
The couple are keeping their feeder from freezing with a 7-watt incandescent light bulb in a small plastic bucket strapped to it.
Many other residents have bought heated feeders or re-rigged heating systems of their own with larger light bulbs, heating lamps or even duct-taped hand warmers. One Corvallis woman strings up a ball of red Christmas lights under her feeder every winter – red to better attract the hummingbirds.
Anna’s hummingbirds inhabit Oregon and Washington year-round. Even in winter, when there are no flowers, they can root around in the ground for insects. But when the ground is frozen solid or covered in snow, the task becomes impossible.
That’s when home feeders play an especially crucial role. Experts say increasing the ratio of sugar in homemade nectar during winter spells is not a good idea. One cup water to a quarter cup white sugar is just right.
If your nectar freezes, replace it with a liquid version during daylight hours, which is when the birds feed. Some people have two feeders and rotate them throughout the day.
I learned firsthand during a days-long spell of subfreezing temperatures in Portland in December that the birds need to eat often, and allowing feeders to freeze over can lead to sheer desperation. Mine was freezing solid every hour. One of the birds that frequented it darted into my house on an 18-degree night, apparently low on energy and looking for a place to warm up.
But experts say that with a constant food supply, hummingbirds are well adapted to the Northwest’s usual cold snaps. At night, as temperatures drop, they enter a condition known as torpor. Their normal body temperatures of more than 100 degrees can drop by more than half, if necessary, to conserve energy.
Portland Audubon’s Wildlife Care Center regularly treats hummingbirds in distress. But staff there warn area residents not to bring in hummingbirds for medical care just because they are hanging upside down from feeders or are laying still on the ground. It might just be that the birds are in torpor.
Staff recommend calling for advice first. The center can be reached at 503-292-0304. Due to burst water pipes and flooding in December, the center shutdown its normal location for nearly two months. But last week it began accepting wildlife patients again – at a temporary facility at 8001 N.E. 14th Place in Portland.
— Aimee Green; agreen@oregonian.com; @o_aimee
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