I know this is a bit late, but people obvuously still have access to it & thought it was super important for everyone to know... When you find a hummingbird that seemingly appears dead - double check to MAKE SURE IT'S NOT JUST SLEEPING!!! There's plenty of sources out there that explain SLEEPING HUMMINGBIRDS that APPEAR DEAD but are actually in a PSEUDO-HIBERNATION STATE alled TURPOR! You may even find them UPSIDE DOWN, as their death grip o lm a tiny branch may have also slipped them into that position - BUT NOTE - THEY ARE NOT DEAD! While in the sleeping state of TURPOR, everything slows down so extremely slow in order to survive colder night temps, that it is often mistaken (I've found them that way myself)... and they are oblivious to ANYTHING, including human touch - since it may take them anywhete between 20 MINUTES TO AN HOUR TO WAKE UP OUT OF A TURPOR STATE.... EASILY MISTAKING THEM FOR BEING DEAD! As I have found them upside down & appearing dead, not to mention how INCREDIBLY LONG IT TAKES THEM TO WAKE UP - I had no idea of/ ever hears of TURPOR at the time! As such, all these years later - I am now wondering if I had actually buried a perfectly fine, living, slow breathing Hummer all those years ago... and the thought sickens me! I try thinking back to my having it in a box for some time before that & double checking several times - but the fact that it takes them anywhere from 20 minutes to AN HOUR TO WAKE UP... I just want people to KNOW TO REALLY WAIT & DOUBLE, TRIPLE, QUADRUPLE CHECK BEFORE BURYING OR DISPOSING OF WHAT THEY PERCEIVE TO BE A DEAD HUMMER - AS IT MAY ONLY REALLY BE SLEEPING!

Hummingbirds don't require tubular flowers, but a lot of our native tubular flowers evolved that way specifically for hummingbird pollination. Their sticky tongues get more nectar from tubular flowers than flat ones. They also visit many flowers for the small insects they attract. But any flower rich in nectar is fair game.

A note about sugar ratio and percent: To say a 1:4 sugar:water mix is 20% sugar is incorrect; the sugar is in dry, granulated form and the water is (obviously) liquid. The sugar industry expresses sugar concentration as percent sugar by weight (mass for you scientists) also known as Brix; where one Brix is equivalent to 1 gram sugar dissolved in a 100 gram sugar solution. This is the number a sugar refractometer will give you. A cup of sugar weighs 200 grams. A cup of water weighs 237 grams. A 1:4 sugar mix is 200 grams sugar + 948 grams water = 1148 grams total. Percent sugar by weight or Brix is: 200g / 1148g x 100 = 17% (rounded to the nearest percent). You 1:4 purists are only offering half the sugar concentration found in natural nectar preferred by Hummers! So, get over it already... By the same method: A 1:3 sugar mix is 200g / 911g x 100 = 22% by weight A 1:2 sugar mix is 200g / 674g x 100 = 30% by weight A 1:1 sugar mix is 200g / 437g x 100 = 46% by weight Benjamin F Tucker was among the first to mass-feed hummers in the 1930s and '40s. He used laboratory glassware to make his feeders (no Perky-Pet or Droll Yankees back then). His work was described in the December 1946 Popular Mechanics article: "Hummingbird Cafeteria". The lead photo shows 22 of his 'beaker feeders' lined up on wood shelves. A quote from page 125: "If you supply artificial nectar - half water and half sugar - he'll stay long after blooming time." Sounds like a 1:1 sugar mix to me - 46 Brix - and I don't believe he poisoned a single hummer... (PM December 1946 may be found on-line - I'll let you figure that out for yourself...) - waw -

AWESOME ginni! Those pics are just wonderful. Thank you for sharing them!