Frozen hummingbird feeders: islanders search for solutions

Q: We have four to six hummingbirds still coming to our feeder. I know some species overwinter on the coast, but I am worried about them if there is a freeze. Does anyone have any advice for keeping our feeder from freezing?
— Gail Neumann, Salt Spring Island (originally posted to the Salt Spring community email list) and a Driftwood reader who dropped into the office a while back.

A: The species of hummingbirds seen at Gulf Islands feeders during winter, according to retired biologist John Sprague, is the Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna).


Rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) are often spotted here, but they migrate south during winter.


Anna’s hummingbirds, however, remain on throughout winter on the Gulf Islands. When the winter flowers and sap lie under snow cover, these fast-flying hummers rely on local sugar water feeders to survive winter.


How to keep feeders flowing with their water/sugar mixture in sub-freezing temperatures is a hot topic among local bird lovers.


Fortunately, sugar water will not freeze until a few degrees below zero, so local birders have some leeway when trying to keep feeders from turning to ice.


Sprague admits that during particularly chilly periods last year he changed his feeder every four and a half hours to keep one step ahead of the freeze.


Other local birders, searching for a better way of keeping feeders warm, have recently appealed to one another via the Salt Spring Community email list.


Here were suggestions for keeping feeders warm in winter that were posted on the email list throughout November:
- Wrap a string of Christmas lights around it
- Point a flood light at it from about from about a foot away
- Keep it under the cover of a porch or next to the house
- Keep it in a location protected from the wind
- Bring it in at night
- Keep a few feeders inside and rotate them
- Insulate bottle type feeders with bubble wrap
- Use heat lamps
- Get up early in the morning and run the feeder under hot water


Sprague has just ordered a candle warmer from www.candlewarmers.com ($6 USD) and he plans to affix it to the base of a flat-bottomed feeder. I’m hoping his invention works so he can have some free time this winter. Running out in the snow (I’m imagining him in slippers) to change his feeders every few hours — to me, that is the perfect mix of both the mad and the heroic that I so admire in devout ornithologists.


NOTE: A quick scan of the conversations on the email list shows some locals are torn on whether or not it is desirable or necessary to feed our little hummers over winter. According to Wikipedia, scientists have found that the Anna’s hummingbird can survive periods of sub-freezing weather by lowering its metabolic rate and entering a state of torpor (temporary hibernation). Some say they survive without feeders. Others worry the home feeders make the birds dependent and when the sugar water freezes, they have trouble locating alternative carbohydrate sources.


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