[Tweeters] Torpor in Hummers

[Robert O'Brien via Tweeters]

Wow, I had never heard of anyone else who had such an experience.THANKS.
This was long ago and I do now have heated feeders.
Maybe going out of torpor at or before dawn is normal, even when it is not
so cold and even if there are not feeders available.  In the wild, that
is.  And I have had these feeders at night in the cold with the porch light
on.  I wondered whether they would feed at night but didn't see it.  But, I
could easily have missed it.
Bob


On Mon, Dec 29, 2025 at 10:42 PM Louise via Tweeters <
tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:


> I had similar experiences to you, Bob. I would bring in my feeders at

> night when it was cold enough to freeze them, then put them out at the

> first hint of light, and I had hummers leap onto the feeder while it was

> still in my hand, before I could even hang it.

>

> Someone here on tweeters (I forget who) told me that in winter, the

> hummers will even wake from torpor and feed in the dark, so bringing the

> feeders in at night can be detrimental to them. So I bought one of the

> feeder heaters (one of the little lamp bulb versions that puts out just

> enough heat to stop it from freezing) and I always leave them out. This is

> the type I have - it just clips onto the bottom of the feeder. I only need

> it for about one week a year on our area, but it was cheap enough.

>

> Louise

>

> On Mon, Dec 29, 2025 at 4:08 PM Robert O'Brien via Tweeters <

> tweeters at u.washington.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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