News

Bat cages

Posted by Douglas Everett on

I have thirteen feeders in my yard and in the summertime nights they get attacked by the endangered nectar eating bats. They are sloppy drinkers and their slurping always leaves nectar residue on the feeders and the floors that attracts ants and bees.  For the feeders near the house patio and pool area I made cages and positioned around the feeders to prevent the bats from draining.The cages are made from 4’ x 8’ ‘Remesh Sheet’ purchased from Home Depot. (I modified the design based upon the concept from the Hummingbird Monitoring Network.) I cut it, bend it, wire it all...

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Alexander Wilson's Account of Humming Bird

Posted by Douglas douglas@hummingbirdmarket.com on

I was reading my just received "Wilson Journal of Ornithology", published by the Wilson Ornithological Society. And I have been noticing that each issue for the last year had an article about Alexander Wilson. From 1803 to his death in 1813, Alexander Wilson traveled over 12,000 miles, visited all 15 states and territories of the United States, discovered 26 species of birds, wrote and illustrated 314 accounts of birds of eastern North America, sold 450 subscriptions, and edited and supervised publication of the nine volume American Ornithology. In honor of the 200th anniversary of Wilson's achievement of his nine volume American Ornithology the journal is...

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Laws about Hummingbirds

Posted by Douglas Everett on

In the United States it is against the law/ illegal to hold a hummingbird, a hummingbird nest, a hummingbird baby, or any part of a hummingbird, nest, or egg, in any type of captivity. We repeat: unless you have a valid permit, it is illegal to trap, band, hold, harass, or control any hummingbird or any part of the hummingbird, nest, or egg. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 is the US law that regulates the possession and or capture of any migratory bird. Hummingbirds are included in the list of Migratory Birds that are protected under the United States Code...

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Humming bird friendly coffee

Posted by Douglas Everett on

More than half of the species of hummingbirds live in the tropics. Even our favorite backyard species migrate to the tropics, where they spend the greatest portion of the year. In the tropics, hummingbirds often move up and down mountains and between arid and moist habitats to keep up with where the trees and shrubs are flowering. Coffee is often grown halfway up tropical mountains, the cross-roads for the myriad species moving to find flowers. When grown under a diverse canopy of shade trees, coffee plants, the trees that shade them, and the plants that grow on the trees provide...

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Bone Char & Refined White Sugar

Posted by Douglas douglas@hummingbirdmarket.com on

In our examination of refined sugar for hummingbird nectar we found the below information which may be interesting to some. We have sourced all our ingredients from non-bone char sugar manufacturers. Are Animal Ingredients included in white sugar? From PETA Bone char, which is used to process sugar, is made from the bones of cattle from Afghanistan, Argentina, India, and Pakistan. The bones are sold to traders in Scotland, Egypt, and Brazil who then sell them back to the U.S. sugar industry. The European Union and the USDA heavily regulate the use of bone char. Only countries that are deemed...

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