When it gets cold and there’s a chance that the feeders might freeze, I bring them in at night and then put them back out in the morning.
Last night I went out at about 10 to bring them in and wtf, there’s a hummingbird sitting at one! He’s fully in torpor, eyes tightly shut, doesn’t hear me moving around. I thought about grabbing him and bringing him in for the night because I figured something must be wrong with him to be sleeping right there but I was worried that I’d startle him, he’d fly off into the pitch black and die. So I turned the heat lamp on for him (I have a heat lamp for them when it’s cold in the day, see picture) and crossed my fingers he’d still be there in the morning.
Got up at 6:45 (still dark) and lo and behold he’s still there, still sleeping. At 8:00 he wasn’t there anymore.
I saw lots of hummer activity during the day and can’t tell who’s who when they’re flying all around like that.
I kept a close watch on that feeder as it was getting dark and sure enough, here he comes, gets comfy with his back to the heat lamp, has something to eat and now he’s asleep. He’s in a good spot at least - fully covered, a heat lamp on him, up on the safety of the deck because all the cats know there’s a big dog who lives in this house and wants to kill them.
From your location, I assume it must be a Rufous Hummingbird. As the most northern of hummingbirds, they routinely enter torpor to conserve energy at night. So you did the right thing not to disturb him.
I keep checking on him. I can see him through the living room window. He’s sound asleep, his little head has fallen back and he’s just sleeping in front of the heat lamp. He made a good choice tonight as it’s snowing…again…
Yes, he’s a Rufous. The dominant male always chases him away but he’s learned how to come in, very stealthily, from around the side of the house and land on the side of the feeder that’s hidden from the view of the other male’s feeder.
It’s 1c/34f right now but it’s probably 10c/50f in front of the lamp.
At a friend’s house in the Sierra Nevada foothills on a covered patio attached to his house, a lot like your photo, he had a hummingbird who had perched upon an exposed nail high-up. However, the poor little dude never woke. My friend just left him there as a decoration, and for a story.
Last year I found a dead hummingbird at the juncture of a beam and a rafter of the deck roof. Last week was cold – in the teens. I rigged a lamp with a 75 w bulb near the hummingbird feeder. We’ve been bringing the feeder indoors at night, and in the daytime when it froze, to thaw it out. I have no idea if the lamp saved any birds. Now that it’s warmed up, I haven’t seen any birds. I hope they’re OK.
Awww, he’s having little birdy dreams, and probably - if it’s very quiet and you have supernatural hearing - snoring quietly.
He’s also hit the jackpot as far as comfy bachelor pads go, with a personal heat lamp and snacks within easy reach. Sounds like the hummingbird equivalent of getting to stay in bed with an electric blanket and a bag of chips right next to you.
Aww, sweet! We only get ruby-throats here, and they are gone by October. Won’t see them again until April. It would be very cool to be in a place where they can survive all year.
