Date: 12/29/25 4:41 pm From: Robert O'Brien via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Torpor in Hummers
And a corollary: At 6 degrees night time low for several days it didn't
even get into the 20's during the day, although I don't recall the exact
details as this was decades ago..
On Mon, Dec 29, 2025 at 4:07 PM Robert O'Brien <baro...> wrote:
> Over decades of birding I've experienced 'torpor' or 'not' twice. This
> seems an appropriate time to discuss them for possible feedback.
>
> 1. I had a hummer feeder on my front porch. When I went to refill the
> feeder I accidentally dropped and broke it. No backup. So I got an olive
> jar about 2"x 4"deep, filled it with 'the, 'juice' and fashioned a way to
> attach it. That worked fine. The male Rufous just landed on the edge and
> sipped away. I sorta forgot about it, but one day, when I returned home, I
> happened to glance at the jar and noticed an apparently dead male Rufous,
> bill down in the jar, now empty of juice.. I guess it had to dip further
> and further down, until it actually fell in. Oh, no. No idea how long it
> had been in there, but I knew about torpor, so I cupped it in my hand for
> warmth and went into the house. In 5-10 minutes I felt a 'stirring' 5 or
> so minutes later, I released it back outside, apparently none the worse for
> wear.. Great.
>
> But, conversely. Years ago, we had 3 or 4 nights here, SE of Portland,
> with a low of 6 degrees F. I had a bona fide feeder back on the porch that
> I took in during the night so it did not freeze. I got up each morning
> when it was just barely light to replace the feeder in case any hummers
> were surviving, which seemed unlikely. When I did this the first morning,
> a female Anna's immediately flew up from low weeds on the ground 15 feet
> away, and started partaking. This repeated the following two nights after
> which it warmed up.
> Now, this hummer was undoubtedly in Torpor (or not?) during the night,
> aided likely by some amount of ground heat to prevent freezing, even in
> Torpor. So,
> 2. How did the hummer know to spend the night on the ground?
> 3. How is it that the hummer was 'awake' at barely first light, as though
> waiting for me to replace the feeder. I don't think they can come out of
> torpor immediately, can they?
> And at 6 degrees I wasn't loitering on my porch, I put the feeder up and
> the hummer arrived immediately.
>
> Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm? Bob OBrien Portland
>
