[bcbirdclub] Rufous Hummingbird Banded in Florida Recovered in Alaska!!
- From: "Roger Mayhorn" <rmayhorn@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "BCBC Listserve" <bcbirdclub@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:18:53 -0400
This is an interesting read about a migrating Rufous hummingbird.
Roger Mayhorn
Compton Mt
Subject: Hummingbird Recaptured in Alaska
From: Fred Dietrich <fdietrich AT yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:12:30 -0700 (PDT)
I just got some wonderful news this afternoon. A female rufous hummingbird that
I banded on January 13, 2010 at Pam Flynn's house in Tallahassee was recaptured
today in Chenega Bay, Alaska, nearly 4,000 miles away. When I examined the bird
I checked its bill and found that about 50% of it contained striations,
indicating that this bird was born last summer. Instead of migrating south to
Mexico like most rufous, it came east and spent the winter here. This recapture
is by far the greatest distance between banding site and breeding grounds. One
of the previous long distances was a bird recaptured here after being banded in
west Texas, about 980 miles. That one really pales compared to this bird. I'm
not sure what the previous record was but I think this may be 1,200 miles
longer. One reason is that there are few banders in Alaska
to band and recapture birds in the NW end of their territory. I have posted
some photos of this bird that I took when I banded it, at
http://upload.pbase.com/edit_gallery/fdietrich/alaska. The last page is a
record of the data that I collected and reported to the Bird Banding Laboratory
in Maryland, the repository of all data that is collected through bird banding.
While it has long been believed that the birds that winter in the SE states may
have come from as far away as Alaska, this is the first time that we have been
able to document it on both ends of the migration route. Without banding
hummingbirds, we would have no idea of their migration habits. Obviously there
was no harm done to this bird during banding and carrying the band didn't
affect its ability to fly. The weight of the band is less than .02% of its body
weight, many times more than the relative
weight of a person wearing a wrist watch, and since the bird tucks its legs up
into its body feathers when it flies, there is no increased aerodynamic drag
caused by the band. I will be banding at a few homes this summer but our main
research project continues to be banding wintering hummers, those that are here
between November 15th and March 1st. Keep your feeders out and I'll be waiting
to hear from you this winter, and especially to see if this long range migrant
returns to Pam's house. Fred DietrichTallahassee, FL850 591-7430
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