Garden

[blankette]

Just on a hope I put out a feeder. Well, something is sipping the elixir as it goes down a little bit every day now for a couple of weeks. I have checked for leaks and it isnt dripping. So when do these little darlings come and feed, I would love to actually see one IF i have them. Is there anything other than a hummer that could be feeding?  I could put my Arlo on it but really dont want to get overly consumed with this as that could take some battery time. what time is best for me to be watching??

[nana59]

My husband sees them at the feeder early morning...I see a few during the day, but my feeder is busiest at dusk....and occasionally I see a beautiful woodpecker at the feeder!

[blankette]

My goodness, it could be a wood pecker. I know we have those for a fact.

[Susan Louise]

In our location in eastern NE, we don't have any during the breeding season...only during the migration periods during the Spring and Fall. We usually start seeing them migrate for the Fall migration about the last week of July...so shortly we'll be putting feeders out again.

If you do have any hummers, as @nana59 mentioned, the best times to see the hummers feed are at dawn and dusk when they usually feed more frequently.

When they migrate, they may only feed once or twice before continuing on their journey. On the other hand, we had one stay last year for 11 days...the longest we ever had a migrator stay! Previous record was 5 days. Since we document hummingbird visits, we were able to tell. 

So when you have migrating hummingbirds...they can stay as short as just checking out your feeder without even feeding (they may not need to feed or they don't know how to use a feeder yet), feed once or twice, stay an hor, a few hours, a day, a few days...and again, for us, 11 days was the longest. It all depends on their individual needs...how much refueling/rest they need at the time they are passing through your place.

For example, a hummer may not have fed for several miles of flying, their route may or may not be filled with several feeding locations along the way. Some passing through may have just fed in your neighborhood down the street or in your next door neighbor's garden if they don't feed at your place...so many variables

[tucsongal]

Gila woodpeckers like our feeder, and bats are also known to partake! 

[Nataliesgramma]

I see them the most between 8-9 in the evening.....

[meem120]

I see mine early morning and at dusk.  

[CatsyCline]

 Baltimore Oriole birds love drinking the hummingbird nectar

my hummers are here all season...they are territorial and hide out in the arbor vitae and perform their mating ritual  right near the feeder.  my hummers hit the feeder early and then stop for lunch.  later at dusk they are active again. there is a "sentry" that watched the feeder and chases other birds so they cannot drink

last nite at about 8pm i had a swarm of 6-8 tiny very dark birds...i think they are babies. they sat two to a "flower" guzzling nectar and one momma was with them keeping the "sentry" away . she has a fringe of  white tail feathers .

[depglass]

We live in the woods and have very few neighbors and I don't know if others are feeding.  Lots of rain this year, very unusual.  We've only had a couple hummers show up occasionally, I'm still on the first batch of syrup.  Last year I had to cook up a new batch every two days.