I have been swamped with emails from concerned birders as to the valuable lesson learned and why I feel responsible for its death. Rather than respond to each email individually I hope this general email will clarify the situation for all.
What actually caused the bird's death I do not know and one can only speculate. The symptoms I described to the lady from Toronto Wildlife indicated that this sounded like the bird was "panting" due to extreme heat and I am speculating that this is the cause of death. I initially suspected it may have ingested some 'sour' nectar from my feeder from a previous day. Previously, I had been changing my nectar religiously once a week and have since learned that this is not frequent enough in these extreme weather conditions. Yesterday was one of my regular nectar change times and I noticed the liquid was quite cloudy, so my first assumption was that the bird had ingested some of this bad nectar. Thanks to several members responses, I was advised that the nectar should be changed more frequently. One person even suggested changing daily, which I will do until this heat wave is over and then I will go to twice weekly. What actually killed the bird I do not know and probably never will. So the bottom line of what I have learned is to keep the nectar clean and change frequently during extreme heat. I have also done a little research on bird baths for hummingbirds and will follow up on this. I hope this clarifies the situation and I apologize if I have caused unnecessary alarm. Charlie Hastings _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup
