[Tweeters] Torpor in Hummers

[Robert O'Brien via Tweeters]

And a corollary:  At 6 degrees night time low for several days it didn't
even get into the 20's during the day, although I don't recall the exact
details as this was decades ago..

On Mon, Dec 29, 2025 at 4:07 PM Robert O'Brien <baro at pdx.edu> wrote:


> Over decades of birding I've experienced 'torpor' or 'not' twice.  This

> seems an appropriate time to discuss them for possible feedback.

>

> 1.  I had a hummer feeder on my front porch.  When I went to refill the

> feeder I accidentally dropped and broke it.  No backup.  So I got an olive

> jar about 2"x 4"deep, filled it with 'the, 'juice' and fashioned a way to

> attach it.  That worked fine.  The male Rufous just landed on the edge and

> sipped away.  I sorta forgot about it, but one day, when I returned home, I

> happened to glance at the jar and noticed an apparently dead male Rufous,

> bill down in the jar, now empty of juice..  I guess it had to dip further

> and further down, until it actually fell in.  Oh, no.  No idea how long it

> had been in there, but I knew about torpor, so I cupped it in my hand for

> warmth and went into the house.  In 5-10 minutes I felt a 'stirring'  5 or

> so minutes later, I released it back outside, apparently none the worse for

> wear..  Great.

>

> But, conversely.  Years ago, we had 3 or 4 nights here, SE of Portland,

> with a low of 6 degrees F.  I had a bona fide feeder back on the porch that

> I took in during the night so it did not freeze.  I got up each morning

> when it was just barely light to replace the feeder in case any hummers

> were surviving, which seemed unlikely.  When I did this the first morning,

> a female Anna's immediately flew up from low weeds on the ground 15 feet

> away, and started partaking.  This repeated the following two nights after

> which it warmed up.

> Now, this hummer was undoubtedly in Torpor (or not?) during the night,

> aided likely by some amount of ground heat to prevent freezing, even in

> Torpor.  So,

> 2.  How did the hummer know to spend the night on the ground?

> 3.  How is it that the hummer was 'awake' at barely first light, as though

> waiting for me to replace the feeder.   I don't think they can come out of

> torpor immediately, can they?

> And at 6 degrees I wasn't loitering on my porch, I put the feeder up and

> the hummer arrived immediately.

>

> Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?            Bob OBrien  Portland

>

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