Hummingbirds make humans eat from their hands during the cold snap

This morning, my 79-year-old father was in the winter darkness cutting a path through half a foot of fresh snow to make sure his hummingbird feeders were filled with sweet, sugary liquid at dawn.

And it was not the first time.

He is one of a legion of residents in southwestern British Columbia and Vancouver Island on a crusade to ensure that Anna’s resident hummingbirds do not perish in the unusually cold weather that has gripped the region in recent weeks.

People are flocking to hardware stores for specialized heating bulbs and feeders. My father can attest from personal experience that there are none in the stores near him.

And the internet is awash with social media posts from people exchanging tips, tactics, and photos of the gadgets they’ve put together to keep the energetic little birds fed and warm.

Some place non-LED lit bulbs in aluminum baking sheets taped to the bottom of the feeders to prevent the nectar from freezing. Others wrap feeders in socks filled with warm compresses that warm the hands. The incandescent Christmas lights wrapped around the devices are also a huge hit.

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My dad’s method is to make a bulk batch of fresh sugar water each night and bring in the feeders to defrost and clean.

Every morning, at least half an hour before sunrise, he makes sure that the feeders, wrapped with all the cloths in the house, hang from their hooks in the favorite places of the birds next to the camellia bush and under the vine.

Then every two hours for the rest of the day, brave the cold to replace the old feeders with warm reserve ones. This from a man who fled to British Columbia to escape the Ontario winters when he was young.

I’m not sure I can swear that my sister and I ever got that level of attention and nutrition.

Apparently my father’s devotion to British Columbia’s hardiest hummingbird species is not unusual.

MARS Wildlife Rescue Center in Comox Valley on Vancouver Island is receiving a number of calls from people looking to help out or save their little expenses.

“People are being really wonderful trying to save these birds,” said Jo Stiles, a MARS animal handler.

“They are very attentive to their feeders so that the hummingbirds can survive this cold. But it takes a tremendous effort. ”

The birds, which weigh less than 5 grams, need to eat constantly to maintain their body weight and energy, he said.

Since Dec. 20, the rescue center has received 14 small feathered patients who need extra care, Stiles said.

To survive the cold, hummingbirds often go into torpor, a state similar to hibernation where their body temperature may drop from 107 F to as low as 48 F.

People may think that birds are dead in this state, as they can be found hanging from a perch or immobile on the ground.

The best remedy is to put the hummingbird and a feeder in a covered box indoors and somewhere quiet until they warm up, Stiles said.

“Let them have some time there, and when you see them being active again, then they can be released,” he said.

“Unless it’s late in the day, leave them overnight with a feeder and let them go the next morning.”

Birds that don’t seem to revive in half an hour indoors should be taken to a local rescue where they can receive more specialized care, he said.

“That may be an indication that he has become very dehydrated or that he has become so hypoglycemic that he cannot reactivate his own system and therefore may need additional help,” Stiles said.

The best thing people can do for jeweled birds in winter is to make sure they have plenty of warm, clean food.

Anna’s hummingbirds are notoriously territorial about their feeders.

My father has given an unnameable nickname to a bellicose male who sits in the line across the yard equidistant from both feeders so that he can easily scare off intruders.

The bold little birds aren’t particularly kind to their keepers, either.

They take care of my father every morning. The moment he opens the door, the scarlet-throated and iridescent green trapeze artists come over and chatter over his head as if to hurry him.

My mother can’t understand why she tries so hard for such aggressive little birds.

“I do not like. They are too much like humans, ”he observes.

But if you start feeding hummingbirds, you have to compromise because they become dependent on that food source, says the SPCA.

And my father is just engaged.

He would never admit it, but will give up a short trip to a friend’s house for New Years due to bad weather.

But I suspect the real reason is that she doesn’t trust my mother to pamper her beloved hummingbirds carefully enough.

Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada National Observer