Last year, I bodged together a motion detecting camera to photograph hummingbirds at my hummingbird feeder. But it was always a temporary hack. We had some difficulty with the ants that discovered the feeder, and we discontinued the experiment.

I had a post that I could hang some feeders from, and decided to fill a planter with cement and embed the post so I could move it around and hose it down easily. It’s working pretty well: last weekend we finished it, and have already had to refill the feeder. I think I’ve identified at least three to four hummingbirds who are feeding there, although they seem quite territorial, and one of the larger ones often scares off the smaller ones.

But he doesn’t seem to bother this guy:

I’m not much of a bird watcher, but a little googling suggests to me that he’s a Hooded Oriole. They seem to like the sugar water from hummingbird feeders, and slurp up a fair amount of this stuff when they land. I’ve seen a female of the species as well, who is a bit paler and lacks the black markings surrounding the eye.

I’ll try to get the motion detecting camera up sometime in the next few weeks.