NEWS AND NOTES   --   FALL 2005

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Ruby-throat Banding in Massachusetts

Observing Hummers in the Field

Mystery Hummer on Martha's Vineyard

 Hummer Garden of Delights

BANDING RUBY-THROATS IN MASSACHUSETTS

New England Hummers welcomes a new hummingbird bander in Massachusetts this year!  Anthony Hill, an accomplished bird bander for many years,  now has permits to band hummingbirds in MA, ME, NH and VT, having trained with master hummer-bander Bob Sargent in Alabama. Anthony is also a volunteer bander every summer at the Appledore Island Migration Station.  This summer, Mr. Hill banded an astounding 117 Ruby-throats and 1 Rufous hummer at his home near South Hadley, MA!

These numbers reflect 31 days of banding at one yard site, and sample each month of  the season, though more in Aug and Sept than in earlier months. The yard site is not unusual:  it is a one-acre clearing surrounded by woods, with eight nectar feeders and a few hummingbird flowers. Therefore these total numbers strongly suggest that a far larger number of different individual birds pass through our yards than most people realize.  We usually think that the same few birds are coming to our feeders all summer.  This evidence suggests that this may not really be the case!  Observers (non-banders) who watch their feeders should therefore examine each bird as carefully as possible through binoculars and scope to try to note distinguishing field marks to differentiate birds.

As the season progressed, Anthony did get a fair number of recaptures of birds banded earlier in the season, so birds from a wide local area were coming in. Interestingly the first bird captured on 5/28 was a returnee--she had been banded by Anthony at this site in 2004! So this is solid
evidence for site fidelity among RTHUs in our area. Great!   Finally, we note that the last after-hatch-year male was banded 8/27, suggesting that adult males starting leaving after that date, and that hatch-year birds started arriving on 7/30.  For information on the HY female Rufous, see Fall 2005 Out-of-Range Hummingbirds.
 

OBSERVING HUMMERS IN THE FIELD

It isn't easy to find hummingbirds in natural areas in New England.  Away from feeders and backyards, these birds are probably widely dispersed; they are tiny, and do not vocalize much. They just whiz by, and you have to recognize that "hummmm".  Perhaps this is why so few birders report hummingbirds in their lists of field sightings after birding trips, and why they are probably undercounted in Breeding Bird Surveys. One birder who is attuned to hummers is Mark Lynch, MassAudubon teacher and trip leader and Worcester Art Museum educator.  On Sunday July 31, 2005, he and Sheila Carroll spent the morning birding "Quabbin Park", the South Quabbin area of the vast reservoir accessible by car off Rt. 9 in Ware and Belchertown, MA.  There they observed 9 hummingbirds, of which only 1 was an adult male and at least 3 were hatch year birds.  They recount "At one point we stood on a small hill covered with phlox and at least 5 hummers were there simultaneously. They were interesting to watch as they were very aggressive to each other: often bombing a perched hummer, zooming in a "u" back and forth over the perched bird, or even engaging in aerial chases."  This seems to be a field instance of Ruby-throats collecting at feeding points and becoming aggressive over food sources during late summer prior to migration south.

MYSTERY HUMMER ON MARTHA'S VINEYARD

A "mystery hummer" was reported coming to a feeder on Martha's Vineyard until December 7, 2005. A number of local birders viewed the bird, and Lanny McDowell and Vern Laux took extensive photos, because there seemed  to be a possibility that it was a Black-chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri). There is one MA record of a Black-chinned hummer, a specimen from Cohasset, November 1979.  However, the bird could also be a hatch-year male Ruby-throated.  If so, this bird would set a record as the latest known sighting of a Ruby-throated in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas, published in 2003 and based on data from 1974-80, says that the latest records for Ruby-throateds in the state go "even into November." (p. 193). The latest MA dates compiled by New England Hummers over the last three years are October 1 in Tyringham in 2005, October 11 in Leicester  in 2004, and October 12 in Lenox in 2003. The latest recent New England  Ruby-throated sighting  is December 25, 2004 in Tiverton, RI.  See our report on Fall 2005 Out-of-Range Hummingbirds for a fuller discussion  of the Black-chinned identification problem.  [ 2006 update: The weight of opinion now seems to be that this bird was most probably a Ruby-throated; therefore setting a MA record.]
 

"GARDEN OF DELIGHTS" FOR HUMMERS

Hummers are both insect eaters and  nectar-sippers, predators and pollinators. The first two photos below illustrate this dual personality. Rob Ranney in Deerfield, MA took the photo of a "Hawking Hummer"; you can see both the tiny insect and the hummer's open beak as it chases its prey.  Jim Brown of Boxford, MA took the photo of a young male nectaring at a cardinal flower. In the three flower photos, can't you just see why hummers love these blossoms? Color, structure, and sugar content all play a role. The giant hibiscus is in garden of Dottie Naventi, Tyringham, MA. Hummer favorites Shrimp Plant (Justicia brandegeana) and Cuphea "Tiny Mice" (or is it "Batface"?) are in the garden of Kathryn Disney, Boxford, MA, who took the photos.  All photos taken August and September, 2005.

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Page updated 12/13/05     © Sharon Stichter 2005 Photos used with permission.