Banding of vagrant winter hummingbirds is a tool used to better understand hummingbird behavior. Conventional wisdom was that the only hummingbird in the eastern U.S. was the ruby-throated, and they all migrated to the tropics in the winter. Between November and March, three hummingbird banders working in the Southeastern U.S. banded 289 hummingbirds of 6 species in 2013-14. The important work of banders allows us to monitor visiting vagrants and learn more about hummingbird migration.
Helen Perry
