Date: 6/8/26 9:24 am From: Paul Dickson via groups.io <paul...> Subject: Re: [labird] For hummer gardeners
Dennis, and Labird/humnet
I am not so reserved, I will go out there into the hummer garden commons say that 1:4 is wrong. I don’t know if its harmful, probably not, but its wrong in the sense that its not what Hummingbirds encounter in the wild and its not preferred. I don’t mind myth shattering including the “my hummingbird” myth.
Long ago I ran preference tests of 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, 1;5 and plain water in feeders lined up in row, switching positions of the various choices daily. Highest consumption by liquid volume was far and away 1:3. Highest sugar consumption by dry weight of sugar was 1:2. 1:4 was visited but use was low, 1:5 and water were not touched. The birds could tell the sugar concentration by looking at the feeder, thus the avoidance of plain water and 1:5. The reason that I have used 1:3 ever since is because it matches flowers that evolved with hummingbirds as pollinators. 1:2 approximates a flower that has evaporated because it has not been nectared on a hot or low humidity summer day until afternoon. Capensis radicans, red trumpetvine particularly evaporates even to dry sugar crystals by 3 pm on a hot day. Since no one can point to a single study or even the origin of the Perky Pet recommendation of 1:4, I treat it as a more destructive myth than riding on the backs of geese. Geese don’t migrate from Louisiana due west across Texas to the Pacific coast of southern California then northward to BC. This spring our Blumorpho tagged wintering Rufous did. All took roughly that same route.
Another myth that the new Blumorpho transmitter tool by CTT is blowing is “my hummingbird”, that is a male that seems to be the same bird hanging out at a feeder all spring and summer. By banding we found out long ago that these birds are mobile and trapline houses over a wide area but the size of summer home ranges and overlap between males was not so well understood. Now we can see more. See the pasted map below of 4 summer resident males Ruby-throated all trapped at my house this year in May and still transmitting . Besides these, I have tracks of others tagged at the same time in my backyard that are as far away as northern Wisconsin today. In fact “my hummingbird” is a series of hummingbirds even if you only see one at a time and they perch on the same twig by the feeder.
Paul
RTHU male May-to June 8 apparent breeding residents RTHU male also tagged at the same location, same dates
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From: <labird...> <labird...> On Behalf Of Dennis Demcheck via groups.io
Sent: Monday, June 8, 2026 9:38 AM
To: <labird...>
Subject: [labird] For hummer gardeners
Bill, Paul, Nancy, and others
Yes I'm still out there and still getting nectar readings with my trusty
Brix refractometer. It is gratifying that the nectar concentrations I
investigated over 20 years ago (has it been that long?) have held up to
scrutiny.
I have downplayed this subject the last few years when I give
general-audience hummingbird talks because I have gotten annoyed at being
misquoted or misinterpreted. I met a person at a nature event and he said,
"I've heard of you. You're the guy who says our 1:4 hummingbird feeder
solutions are too low".
Grrrrr.... I never said that. I spent some time and energy trying to make
the point that naturally-occuring nectar sugar more concentrated than 1:4
is widespread in nature and especially common in dedicated
hummingbird gardens. But somehow what to me is a simple message kept going
awry.
I also tried to dispute the birdlore that concentrations greater than 1:4
are actually harmful to hummingbirds, up to and including liver damage.
That's just not true. There is zero evidence of this.
Sheri Williamson has investigated this fallacy and has an excellent 2022
Youtube video interview on this subject ; The Hummingbird Spot at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5x4A8Db6HA<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5x4A8Db6HA>.
At least we all agree that hummingbirds do not migrate on the backs of
geese.
Thanks Nancy, Bill, and Paulall for mentioning me.
