As we have Anna’s Hummingbirds, Calypte anna, in the area throughout the winter, we keep a hummingbird feeder stocked and in position on the deck at all times. However with the nightly temperatures here in Scappoose getting down to -10 °C (14 °F), raising the kitchen blinds to find that the feeder has frozen solid is becoming a daily occurrence.
You might wonder, as I often have, how these little birds survive the frigid temperatures. The secret is their ability to go into brief periods of torpor (somewhat like a short-term hibernation) in order to survive. Feeding as vigorously as they can during the daylight hours, they allow their body temperature to lower drastically at night in order to conserve energy and survive until the morning.
Thus, as I have come to expect each morning when I go outside to thaw the feeder, a cold and hungry but very much alive Anna’s Hummingbird is waiting nearby for me to get the sugar water flowing once again.
December 9, 2009 @ 09:17
How ironic that I come across this post. Not even 5 min’s ago I witnessed in SHOCK that a hummingbird was feeding at one of our feeders! I was reminding myself just yesterday that I need to take them down because they are frozen. I was truly amazed to see this little fella! I guess I just better thaw them out….WOW!
December 9, 2009 @ 11:56
So cute. I love it that the animals watch us and learn our behavior as much or more than we do theirs. “My” Robin is back and if I don’t get her meal worms out by 6:40 A.M. I hear about it. Have my coffee first? How DARE I!
December 10, 2009 @ 06:05
Very interesting. I, too, have wondered how birds survive our frozen nights. It’s 20 below with windchill here in Chaska, Minnesota, at eight in the morning, and my porch feeders are filled with housefinches, chickadees and Downy woodpeckers. I can barely stand to go outside and fill the feeders, but they’ve been out in the chill all night.