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much, I figured I had to feed them some more,” said Mrs. Lewis with just a hint of resignation. “One thing led to another. Most people who came around the house liked to look at them,” so by August three years ago, Mrs. Lewis was providing up to 48 ounces of sugar water daily for the birds.
Mrs. Lewis follows the directions on her original feeder box for the sugar water — one cup of sugar to every four cups of water.
“I am told never to give them honey,” she says. “It’s not that I’m an authority — I’m simply following the instructions on the box!”
According to Mrs. Lewis, the Ruby-Throated hummingbirds fly into the area in late spring, building up their numbers gradually until their peak season in July and August. They leave the county in the latter part of August for their long journey to their winter resorts in the Caribbean.
Mature male Ruby-Throated hummingbirds have a patch of red feathers under their throats. At three and a half inches long, they are the smallest of all birds. The females generally lay two eggs each year the size of peas, in nests comprised of spiders’ webs and plant down. They are the only birds that can fly backwards.
Mrs. Lewis has become a particularly astute observer of hummingbird behavior and psychology.
“I have noticed that around July a mature male bird will decide that these feeders are his territory. This bird will then stab all the other birds — females too — with his bill and chase them away. So I put out more than one feeder just to drive him crazy,” says Mrs. Lewis with a twinkle. This keeps the aggressive bird frantic, flying from feeder to feeder, jabbing at other birds.
“He will stab the other birds in the back,” Mrs. Lewis adds.
Mrs. Lewis has noticed that each year a different bird seems to assume the role of hummingbird chief. “Apparently, a mature male merely appoints himself as the custodian of all feeders,” she says.
“The attacked birds always move and get out of the way,” Mrs. Lewis remarked. “You’d think they would come up and eat quietly, but that’s not so. The most aggressive male will stab butterflies or anything else.”
“Three feeders is about more than he can handle. He’s the busiest, most frustrated bird you ever saw.”
Mrs. Lewis describes the hummingbirds as being “like little bees. They just buzz around. The landlord, or whatever that aggressive one is, keeps them all buzzed up, moving around from feeder to feeder.”
Mrs. Lewis notes that she does not plant flowers or shrubs for the
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