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From: john@nmt.edu (John Shipman)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Bird feeding and migration
Summary: Skepticism
Message-ID: <1990Sep4.190206.6103@nmt.edu>
Date: 4 Sep 90 19:02:06 GMT
References: <9008040052.AA25409@cds709.noble.com>
Organization: Zoological Data Processing
Lines: 34

Pardon my skepticism, but my science teachers trained me not
to let blind assertions of fact pass unchallenged.  I want
published sources describing well-designed, double-blind
experiments.  Casual observation doesn't really prove
anything.

Pete Zakel (phz@cadence.com) writes:
+--
| Although [hummingbirds] 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....
+--

How do you know that the contents of the nectar are the sole
factor in the hummers' decisions?  What about the location
of the feeder, the shape of the nozzle, the percentage of
sugar, and hundreds of other variables?

+--
| 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...),
+--

Sources, please---other than Perky-Pet's self-serving literature.
Also, it *is* possible to get sucrose completely into solution.  Try
using warm water, or stirring a lot.
-- 
John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, NM/john@jupiter.nmt.edu
``Let's go outside and commiserate with nature.''  --Dave Farber