Love My Birds Hummingbird Feeder

Hummingbird feeders come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but for years the fundamental designs fall into 3 basic concepts; saucer shaped, inverted bottle feeders, and globe shaped feeders. No matter how fancy or plain the model you choose, there haven’t been any significant improvements in the basic design of hummingbird feeders for a long time. Until now.

Now there’s the Hum Sweet Hum hummingbird feeder, a completely re-engineered feeder that has significantly raised the bar for quality in hummingbird feeders. Created by a small company in the Mid-West, the Hum Sweet Hum is the Mercedes Benz of hummingbird feeders; great looking, beautifully engineered and packed with intelligent, practical features that make this the most hummingbird-friendly and easiest to use of any hummingbird feeder we’ve seen.

At first glance, the Hum Sweet Hum looks like a conventional saucer shaped hummingbird feeder. But on closer inspection, you notice that instead of the usual few feeding ports around the perimeter of conventional saucer feeders, the Hum Sweet Hum has 54 raised, faceted ports in a geometric array on the top of the feeder. This design simulates living flowers that are the hummingbirds’ natural feeding environment and helps attract more birds. The raised ports also keep rain from entering the reservoir and diluting the nectar and also help discourage insects from getting at the hummingbird nectar. The feeder includes a built in 4 oz. ant moat and perches for the birds surround the feeder.

The Hum Sweet Hum’s thoughtful design makes filling the 16 ounce reservoir a breeze and offers you two ways of doing it. To fill the feeder, you remove the top. Once that’s done, You can either add sugar directly into a built-in measuring unit in the feeder, add water to the specified level and mix the nectar right in the feeder reservoir or you can pour nectar you’ve pre-mixed directly into the feeder. When the hummingbirds have emptied the feeder, regular cleaning – which is so important with hummingbird feeders – is as easy as running the feeder through the dishwasher since the Hum Sweet Hum is dishwasher safe.

This hummingbird feeder is designed to be either hung or pole mounted and the manufacturer’s eye for detail even extends to the hanging hook (included) which has an extra large diameter to make it easier to hang anywhere. The feeder is available as a single feeder and also as a two tiered feeder and three tiered feeder. Heavy duty construction and the tough UV resistant polycarbonate materials make this an extremely durable hummingbird feeder that will last a lifetime and attract lots of hummingbirds to your garden. Hum Sweet Hum is designed and manufactured in the U.S and carries a lifetime guarantee.

There may be hummingbird feeders that are more decorative, and there may be  some that are cheaper, but we haven’t seen one that is more thoughtfully designed, more ruggedly engineered or that gives better value for the price than the Hum Sweet Hum. If you are serious about feeding hummingbirds, without a doubt this is the hummingbird feeder to have.

As you contemplate your Holiday turkey this year, you may want to think about where your main course came from.

Turkeys were common in the Americas when European settlers arrived and were a favorite food of Native Americans.

The turkey is one of only two domestic birds that originated in the New World. In case you’re wondering, the other is the Muscovy duck.

There are several theories about the origin of the bird’s name. Whichever one you like, it seems the bird was destined to be called “turkey.”

1. On his first voyage, Columbus thought that he had landed in a part of India, and believed the bird he saw being raised by the natives (the turkey) was a type of peacock. So he called it ‘tuka,’ which is ‘peacock’ in Tamil, an Indian language.
2. One Native American name for turkey is ‘firkee’; this theory says that “turkey” is a European corruption of the word.
3. Occam’s Razor tells us the simplest solution is often the best, so it’s worth noting that when turkeys are alarmed or frightened, the noise they make sounds like “turk, turk, turk”.

Benjamin Franklin was so enamored of the turkey’s character that he wanted them to be the symbol of the new American nation instead of the eagle. The eagle, Franklin said, is a “rank Coward” and “a Bird of poor moral character”. The turkey, on the other hand, is “a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America”, also “a Bird of Courage”, according to Franklin.

By the early twentieth century, hunting and habitat destruction had eliminated the wild turkey from most of its traditional range.

In the 1940s a reintroduction program was begun using captured wild birds to repopulate old ranges and introduce the turkey to new areas as well. Turkeys quickly adapted and began to thrive. Today wild turkeys are found in every state in the U.S except Alaska.

Wild turkeys prefer woodlands, where they like to forage on forest floors, but they also can thrive in swamps and grasslands. They’ll feed on insects, fruits, nuts, seeds, and salamanders.

Although domestic turkeys can’t fly, their wild cousins can. Flying over short distances they have been clocked at 55 miles an hour, while turkeys on the run may hit speeds of 25 miles an hour.

Anyone who has hunted wild turkeys knows how hard it is to sneak up on them. They have excellent hearing, even though they lack external ears. Their vision is sharp as well; they can see in color and have a panoramic 270 degree field of vision.

Turkey hens will lay from 4 to 17 eggs. Once hatched, the chicks will only be fed by their mother for a few days. After that, they will stay with their mother, but have to learn to fend for themselves.

Groups of turkeys are called “rafters”. Hens and their broods will group together in rafters of 30 or so birds, growing in winter to as many as 200.

For information on other wild birds in North America, visit Bird Feeders Unlimited.

• The Northern Cardinal has been named the state bird by seven states, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia, making the cardinal the top choice for state bird.

• Cardinals mate for life; during courtship and nesting, the solicitous males are often seen feeding their mates.
• Male cardinals are very territorial, aggressively confronting rival males that trespass on their territory. This aggressiveness can become a nuisance when a male starts attacking his own reflection in your windows.
• Cardinals are year-round residents in their range across the eastern United States from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to the Mexican Border.
• The brightest colored males are the most successful at getting the best territories and the most food. Females seem to find them more attractive too, based on the brighter males’ higher reproductive rate.

For more information about cardinals, vist Bird Feeders Unlimited