VA Birders,
Wendy and Dave's comments about the number of hummingbirds at their
feeders and placement of the feeders prompts me to share some insight I
gained on this recently. Last week, I had the pleasure of attending
hummingbird banding training in West Virginia with Bob and Martha
Sargent. It was an absolutely incredible experience and I banded over
200 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in 3 and 1/2 days. The other trainee
banded over 200 as well. Bob told me we would probably band this many
while we were there but I couldn't imagine how there could be so many
birds for us to band in such a short time span. My eyes were opened
while I was there. We went to three different houses to band, two of
which had at least 50 feeders. The number of hummingbirds in the air
was incredible. They were literally everywhere. We NEVER were without
birds to band from 7:00am until 5:00pm each day and we did not recapture
very many of the birds we banded in any one day. I have been to Arizona
to see the hummer show there and this rivaled that easily although they
were of course all the same species. These houses are in the mountains
where there seems to a lot of hummingbird migration in the fall (which
is now if you're a hummingbird) but there isn't much research on
hummingbird migration paths and it appears they migrate through just
about everywhere. Anyway, here's a few facts I learned from Bob while I
was there about hummingbirds:
1. To attract a lot of birds, put out a lot of feeders and put them
close together so no one male can dominate. The 50 feeders at each of
these houses were contained in an area the size of a small suburban
yard. Both these wonderful ladies had about 25 feeders on their porches
which were no bigger than my townhouse deck which is 20 feet by 15 feet.
2. The recapture rate at sites like this where Bob goes to band each
summer is 17-20% (much higher than for passerines) and we recaptured
many birds that he had banded in previous years. At his home in Alabama
he finds that migrating hummers pass through his yard on the same or
nearly the same DAY each year.
3. Bob feels that you can multiply the number of hummingbirds you see
at your feeder by 10 to get an actual estimate of how many are actually
using your feeders. I plan to test this out when I start banding next
summer!
I had planned to send out a message later in the season about winter
hummingbird banding but I guess now is as good a time as any. The
primary reason I attended this training is so that I can band the winter
hummingbirds that show up in Virginia. Hopefully the permit situation
will be resolved in time for me to do that this coming winter. Rufous
Hummingbirds could actually already be here but they are likely to be
missed among the many Ruby-throats. If you think you have a species of
hummingbird other than a Ruby-throat please let me know. After November
1, I'd appreciate knowing about any hummingbird that is still around.
Don't worry about the Ruby-throats not leaving if you leave your feeder
out. The instinct to migrate is stronger than the allure of the sugar
water in your feeder.
I'm going to add a page to my webpage with the winter hummingbird
records for Virginia. We have five documented species of hummingbirds
in Virginia and one additional that is probable. In the east in
general, there are 14 documented species of hummingbirds! Bob and
Martha Sargent created a non-profit specifically for the purpose of
studying hummingbirds and I encourage anyone who is interested in
hummingbirds to check out their webpage at www.hummingbirdsplus.org.
They train hummingbird banders for free as part of the work of this
nonprofit!
Finally, I am not on all of the listservs for individual parts of the
state. I'd appreciate it if someone would forward this message to those
not already included here. Thanks!
Sue
--
Susan A. Heath
George Mason University
Environmental Science Department
Fairfax, VA
Secretary, Virginia Avian Records Committee
Keeper, Virginia Comp List at www.virginiabirding.org
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