I have always had 3 hummer feeders out but in previous years they have been placed far apart, 1 out of sight of the others. This year I placed them all in the same area, within 20 feet or less of each other. I do not know if that accounts for the big increase in numbers of hummers we are seeing of if this is a bumper year. In the past we would see 3 hummers at the most at 1 time. This year we are seeing at least 4, usually 6 or maybe more. (They zip around so fast they are hard to count). My question is concerning the females. We have consistently seen 4 females at the same time, almost constantly. I know that birds (all species) only use feeders as 1 stop on their feeding route and that when you are seeing birds all day at feeders, they are not necessarily the same birds. But as we are seeing exactly 4 females all the time, it makes me wonder if they aren't the same birds & if so, how can they be raising families? There will be 4 females here (occasionly 5) feeding for several minutes (up to 10 min.) then they will fly off, there will be none here for a few minutes then 4 females will be back. This cycle continues all day, with very little time when there are no hummers. And there is never less than 4. We sometimes think there are only 2 or 3, then realize the others are sitting in the tree. Does anybody have any thoughts on this? Don't the females have to be spending some time catching insects to feed babies or are the young out of the nest by now? We have tried to identify a young male but have not seen any in the group of birds visiting. And I find it hard to believe that if these were young birds, they would all be females. Would appreciate any insight into this. In the meantime we are reveling in the numbers of hummers we see constantly. Laura Dornan Louisville **************Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for fuel-efficient used cars. (http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007) ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]