On 2016-06-16 15:46:30 +0000, Frank Miles said:

On Tue, 14 Jun 2016 16:58:24 -0400, Brooklyn1 wrote:

Frank Miles wrote:
Snuffy wrote:

Got 2 of the little nuggets poking their heads out of a next. I
notice a wandering housecat under the tree today. I'm trying to watch
and keep running it off as much as I can.

Question.... the nest is on a thin branch that won't hold the cat's
weight and is out of it's reach. If they fly off, all is good. But I
don't know anything about hummingbirds.... Anything I can do to keep
the cat away in case the land on the ground? I thought about red
pepper, but that might not be good for the birds.

Any advice appreciated. Will upload a photo of the birds in the nest
to tinypic later tonight.

Do you know who owns the cat? Maybe if you explained what was
happening?

Cats are one of the dominant killers of birds in this country - you're
right to be concerned.

Actually the dominant killers of birds are primarily windows, then
windmills, airplanes, and high tension wires... cats kill relatively few
birds, and mostly for food. Very often when your cat drops a bird at
your doorstep it was a bird that slammed into your window that your cat
put out of its misery. If you don't make your windows safe for birds
you have no right to complain about cats.
I feed birds including humming birds, I also care for feral cats. I've
never seen a cat go after hummers, hummers rarely if ever perch on the
ground, hummers are extremely alert of their surroundings, their little
heads are always bobbing about being watchful when at their feeders.
Cats don't even notice hummers not anymore than they notice wasps and
bees. If you care about birds hang CDs and sparkly ribbons in your
windows, never place plants in your windows, and place outlines of
raptors in your windows.
http://audubonportland.org/wcc/urban/windows
http://www.duncraft.com/Window-Strike-Solutions?
view_all&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campai gn=Window%20Bird%
20Decals&utm_term=bird%20window%20clings&utm_conte nt=Window%20Bird%
20Decals
http://www.critterguard.org/index.ph...rotection.html

Windows are pretty bad. But cats are the next leading killer. See:
http://www.sibleyguides.com/conserva...ird-mortality/

Windmills are down in the noise, unless you want to include high-tension
power lines in the mix.

Cats get a lot of birds but I'd imagine vanishingly few hummers. I've
seen more hummingbirds killed and eaten by ambushing Chinese mantids
(2) than by cats (0). I've spent hours watching the cats try while the
mantis incidents were observed by happenstance.