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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Hummingbirds take TLC


A female Calliope hummingbird hovers near buddleia blooms searching for nectar and preparing for its fall migration
 (File/ / The Spokesman-Review)
Pat Munts Correspondent

Aleck Contos’s house on Spokane’s South Hill is crowded with hummingbirds made of glass, wood and metal.

“They were gifts from people after my wife died,” he said. Carmela, to whom he was married for 57 years, died six years ago. “She said she always wanted to come back as a hummingbird. How do I get the [real] hummingbirds to come?” he asked wistfully.

It’s not hard, Aleck. The birds need sources of food and places to find shelter without having to work too hard. It takes a little patience and understanding about their habits, but if they find a place they like with all the amenities, they will hang around. Hummingbirds average 3 to 4 inches in length and weigh no more than a nickel. Their flight capabilities allow them to hover, fly backwards, sideways, up and down and even upside down. Their wings beat an average of 200 times a second, allowing them to fly at an average speed of 27-miles-per-hour; 50-miles-per-hour when they hustle.

The two most common hummingbirds we see in Eastern Washington are rufous and Calliope hummingbirds. Occasionally we might be treated to a visit from black-chinned specie. These birds migrate each year returning to our area in late April and leaving late in the summer.

A hummingbird’s diet consists of flower nectar for instant energy and insects for protein. Each day, they eat half their body weight in food and eight times that weight in water. Nectar comes from a number of different flowering plants as well as from special hummingbird feeders filled with sugar water that humans put out for them. Their favorite insects include aphids and spiders but almost any small insect will do.

Nectar feeders are the best way to start attracting the birds. The feeder must have something red on it as this color really draws hummingbirds. Glass or plastic feeders with multiple feeding stations are best.

The feeder should be easy to disassemble and clean as mold and fungus build up can harm the birds.

Hang feeders in a place you can watch them, but out of the direct sun or the easy reach of cats.