Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!decwrl!ucbvax!cadence.com!phz
From: phz@cadence.com (Pete Zakel)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: RE: Bird feeding and migration
Message-ID: <9008040052.AA25409@cds709.noble.com>
Date: 4 Aug 90 00:52:43 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 29

>     As a side note, with regard to sugar-water for hummer feeders,
>nectar, which I'm sure hummers eat without incident, is sugar water
>(basically fructose instead of sucrose).  This soft-bill idea is
>pretty silly, seems to me.

Well, the nectar I use (Perky-Pet nectar mix) is sucrose and dextrose.
One variety of Perky-Pet nectar has added vitamins and minerals (and less
food coloring and no preservatives).  Although they might not *need* the
extra vitamins and minerals, I can attest the fortified nectar goes *much*
faster than the regular stuff (although that could be because they like
having less food coloring, I suppose, or perhaps the lack of preservatives
in the fortified mixture attracts them more...).

Also, although the Anna's hummers in the San Francisco bay area are resident
according to my Peterson's, I think their winter range is different from
their summer range as I get much less activity around my feeders in the
winter months (even though I leave them out all year round).

I suppose I could switch to straight sugar, but I like the fact that the
nectar has finer granules which dissolve better (undissolved sugar in the
nectar is very bad for hummers for the same reason honey is bad -- can
cause infection on a hummer's tongue which frequently means death...), and
Perky-Pet claims the food coloring they use is safe for hummers (I believe
they switched from one variety of colorant to another recently for this
reason) -- and the coloring makes it easier for me to know when the feeders
need refilling.

-Pete Zakel
 (phz@cadence.com or ..!{hpda,versatc,apollo,ucbcad,uunet}!cadence!phz)