RFID tech may tell us if hummingbird feeders are really a good idea

While it's certainly kind of people to set up hummingbird feeders in their back yards, some scientists are wondering if the practise may be causing more harm than good. In an effort to better understand the issue, researchers recently equipped a group of the birds with tags that were read by devices at urban feeders. When hummingbirds feed upon flowers in the wild, they tend to do so individually, staying relatively far apart from one another. By contrast, the birds are crowded together at feeders, physically contacting one another and sharing the same nectar. Therefore, it's been suggested that the feeders might raise the risk of disease transmission between birds. In order to determine just how often the animals visit such feeders – and how long they stay there – a team from the University Of California, Davis captured 230 Anna's and Allen's hummingbirds, and inserted tiny passive integrated transponder (or PIT) tags under their skin.