We Call Our Hummingbird Arnold

Published July 5, 2011

Arnold is always telling us, "I'll be back."

My wife and I have enjoyed feeding hummingbirds over the years. Last night as we were out eating our dinner on the deck, Arnold came back to taunt me. You see, Arnold (short for Arnold Schwarzenegger) always says, “I’ll be back” just like in the movies, but then most of the time our Arnold never seems to come back when I have my camera in hand. And last night was worse than ever, because I swear we were sitting less than 3 feet from our feeder when he swooped in for a long slurp. In fact, he just sat there looking at me as if to say, “Neener, neener!”

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet

You can see Arnold in this shot, but not his wings as they move too fast.

Truth be told, I have caught Arnold sipping at our feeder regularly, but lately I’m trying to catch him in mid flight and it’s just not working. My son was luckier with his cell phone and caught the shot to the left, but I’m still hoping to get a better one.

A Word On Feeding

If you want to feed hummers here’s a few things to know:

(1) Feeding hummingbirds is easy as the only thing you need is a feeder filled with a mix of regular white cane sugar and water. The ratio is 4 parts water to 1 part sugar.

(2) You don’t need any red dye or special store bought nectar. In fact, some people say dyes or too many chemicals can be harmful to hummingbirds. Stick to the simple sugar/water mix.

(3) If you do decide to feed hummers, be consistent about keeping the nectar in the feeder, and clean the feeder regularly to avoid bacteria or fungus. Also, in colder months, keep the feeder from freezing by placing it near a light bulb or spot light. In our area (i.e. Seattle) our hummers have fed from our feeders year around, though migration is more common in other parts of the country.

(4) There are many different styles of hummingbird feeders. We like the variety that allow the hummers to perch as they slurp. The feeder pictured here is one made by Aspects. It doesn’t drip like many models do, is easy to clean, and has no yellow on it so does not attract bees.

Though hummers have no problem adjusting their flight to drink from feeders, it’s much easier and requires less of their energy to sit. Plus, that way, we get to study them close up. One note: Our feeder has four holes, but we’ve only seen two hummers use it at once in the cold of winter. Most of the time they are just too competitive to share in our neck of the woods. However, we’ve seen a full feeder like ours when we visited the southwest.

For a lot more information on feeding hummingbirds see this page at Hummingbirds.net. Meanwhile, let’s take a look at Arnold…