Hummingbird Migration Update: May 10, 2001 Today's Report Includes: Finish Line Egg-to-Fledgling Countdown Concludes: Challenge Questions #26 and #27 Familiar Old Friend Returns A Hummingbird Bander in Action Hummingbirds Beware! Size Wise: Challenge Question #28 Hummingbird Feeding Try This! Alike and Different Discussion of Challenge Questions #21 and #22 Finding Feeders: Discussion of Challenge Question #23 Predators: Discussion of Challenge Question #24 Flight Gear in Tip-Top Shape: Discussion of Challenge Question #25 Year-End Evaluation: Please Share Your Thoughts! Finish Line Rufous Hummingbirds have made steady progress inland and the first Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have reached Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick! "My hummingbirds are at a cottage in Ontario from May 5 to Sept 10 each year," reports Carol McGeachan of Six Mile Lake in Ontario, Canada. "I wait for them with bated breath. They are fed before my family is! My first Hummingbird, a male, arrived May 5/01 at 6:30 pm. His arrival coincided with the birch trees being in flower and the trillium (our provincial flower) opening." Since hummingbirds are thrilling observers in so many northern places now, it would be tempting to say that migration is over--but it's not! In many areas of the Canadian provinces and in the northern tier of states, people haven't yet seen their first hummingbird, or have seen only one or two. Within the next two weeks the rest of the males will get situated, and the females will arrive. Seeing the first hummer of the year is a thrill, but watching the migration flesh out and new hummingbirds begin their lives is what brings this fabulous annual cycle to fruition. Ruby-throated Hummingbird Migration Data Migration Map Courtesy of Lanny Chambers, Hummingbirds.net Rufous Hummingbird Migration Data Migration Map Courtesy of Mike Patterson Neawanna Wetland Ecological Observatory Egg-to-Fledgling Countdown Concludes The baby hummingbirds in Dorothy's maple tree outgrow the nest and fly away as we come to the end of our photo safari. Be sure to take a crack at the final challenge questions! Clicking on each image gives you more facts and details to understand what you're seeing. Here are the final photos and questions as the hummers empty the nest: Day 16: Turnabout Day 17: Growing Up Day 18: Growing Out Of Their House Day 19: On The Edge Day 20A: Moving Out Day 21: Bye-Bye Baby!       Photos courtesy of Dorothy Edgington.    Day 22: Empty Nest   Challenge Question #26 (see Day 17): "If a human baby weighed 7 pounds at birth and grew as fast as a hummingbird, how much would that baby weigh at 16 days old?" Challenge Question #27 (see Day 22): "Where do the babies sleep after they leave the nest?" (To respond to these questions, please follow the instructions below.) Look here to see the baby hummingbirds' picture story from eggs to empty nest! Countdown! Hummer Eggs to Fledglings Familiar Old Friend Returns As hummingbirds rushed into the southern states in April, Bill Hilton was delighted to announce that Ruby-throated Hummingbird #T85914, which he banded as an adult female on 30 May 1997, returned and was recaptured on April 23, 2001. This makes her an "After-Fifth-Year" bird, i.e., at least five years old. Bill told us, "She has been captured at least once each year since the original banding. Thus she has made at least four round trips and two one-way migration trips to date; assuming she is wintering somewhere in Central America, she has probably put in about 12,000 migration miles, possibly more. Ain't it amazing?" We gain information about how long birds live through banding studies like Bill Hilton's. Sometimes banders know a bird's age when they first band it. Nestlings, and some birds whose plumage changes from the first year to the second, are easy to determine. But to find out how long they actually live, banders must recapture birds years after first banding them. There is no way of knowing for certain how many birds live longer than the ones recaptured in banding studies. Bill Hilton Jr. is one of the few hummingbird banders in the country. He is Executive Director of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History in York, SC. Check out the web site here: Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project A Hummingbird Bander in Action Sarah Driver bands a Ruby-throated Hummingbird Imagine the difficulty of putting a band on the leg of a hummingbird! These tiny birds, each weighing less than two pennies, are so delicate that official licensed banders need a special permit to band them. Sarah Driver tells us why banding a hummingbird is like banding a toothpick: Like Banding a Toothpick! Hummingbirds Beware! A bird that weighs less than two pennies faces a LOT of danger! Read about a hummingbird caught in a spider web and another whose beak was stuck in a screen door. Fish and frogs, insects and thorns, storms and buildings---these are just a few of the hazards that hummingbirds face. Despite all these dangers, banding records prove that many hummingbirds manage to live long lives. Read more about hummer dangers and how long they can live here: This hummingbird was trapped in a garage and almost starved to death. Hummer Beware Sometimes hummingbirds get stuck in buildings and can't figure out how to get out. Val McClellan rescued rescued a hummingbird that got trapped in a garage and almost starved to death. She figured out a way to get it to drink and said, "The amazing thing was to watch the transformation of its little body as it filled with nectar. It actually changed shape. The little streamlined body changed to a little plump lump." Read Val's happy rescue story and see her wonderful photos of the hummer before and after feeding: Hummer in the Garage Size Wise This male rufous hummingbird is smaller than a female would be. Copyright (C) 1999 Jerry Blinn Bernice Dunlap of Gilford, NH, writes this interesting observation from May 5: "At about 7:50 am, I had just finished cleaning and refilling my hummingbird feeders and oriole feeders. I looked out and saw a hummingbird trying to get at the oriole feeder in the back yard. Then a minute or so later, I saw the hummingbird feeding at the hummingbird feeder off my front window. I am very excited to see this hummingbird return. I saw red under the neck, a male, and he did look thin." Journey North bird expert Laura Erickson explains: "First thing in the morning, hummingbirds ARE thin. They've been steadily losing weight all night long! Did you know that male hummingbirds are smaller than females? In most birds, males are larger. The main exceptions are birds of prey, such as eagles, hawks, and owls, and hummingbirds. Can you think of any reasons why female hummingbirds would be larger than males? Challenge Question #28: "What is at least one reason why it might be helpful for hummers that females are larger than males?" (To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.) Read on for more about how much these tiny birds can eat! Hummingbird Feeding Hummingbirds are famous for the amount of food they eat. One ornithologist calculated that they eat at least half of their body weight in sugar (not even counting the water in nectar!) every day. You'd think they'd need to spend every waking moment eating to get that amount of food, but they don't. As a matter of fact, some researchers have found that they make feeding flights 14 to 18 times every hour, and each feeding flight lasts less than a minute. This means that hummingbirds are feeding less than a quarter of every hour during daylight. Hummingbirds have a tiny stomach and crop (the little storage pouch in their esophagus. Once these are full, the hummer can't eat any more until the crop is about half empty again. It takes about four minutes to drain about half the nectar into the stomach and intestines, and then the hummer takes off again. What do hummers do when not eating? Mostly they sit on tiny branches or wires. They look like they're resting, but their bodies are busy digesting and their eyes and minds are busy studying the world. Journey North science writer Laura Erickson sees them perched a lot, and says they seem to notice everything going on around them. They make little chittering sounds when eagles and other predators fly over, and even seem to follow her with their eyes and bill. Hummingbirds have no defense except flight, so it makes sense that even when they they're sitting still they're watchful of any potential threats. Try This! Alike and Different List all the ways the hummingbird and monarch migrations are similar. List the ways they are different. Describe the timing and patterns you see, and explain their possible causes. What are the differences between these two animals? How might these differences cause their migrations to be different? Discussion of Challenge Questions #21 and #22 Because we're asking so many challenge questions in connection with the Countdown photos, we are placing the responses to those questions on their very own Web page. Then you can refer to them whenever you are ready to discuss the answers. Here's where you'll find the discussion of Countdown Challenge Questions #21 and #22 from our April 26 report: Link to Discussion of Countdown Challenge Questions #21-#22 Finding Feeders: Discussion of Challenge Question #23 Andrew Sims, a student from Simpsonville, SC. asked you two challenge questions last time when he told us about his hummingbirds: "How do hummingbirds find the hummingbird feeders?" Myriah answered correctly when she said, "I think that hummingbirds might be able to locate the feeders because of the color of the red food, and also the fact that almost all feeders have red or yellow on them." Red is a color that somehow draws a hummingbird's attention very quickly. This fact is helpful to hummers because so many of the flowers they feed upon are red, and is helpful to humans because it makes it easy for us to bring hummers in. Of course, during breeding season a feeder must be in appropriate habitat for hummers to find it. But during spring migration, before many flowers are in bloom and the birds are passing over huge, unfamiliar areas between winter and summer homes, they often notice red feeders even in big urban areas. Journey North's science writer Laura Erickson sometimes counts migrating birds at overlooks along Lake Superior, and finds more hummingbirds than other counters at the same site, perhaps because she wears a red hat. Predators: Discussion of Challenge Question #24 Andy's second question was: "What are some of a hummingbird's predators?" GOOD question! "I've seen Merlins and Sharp-shinned Hawks snatch hummers, and there are records of them being killed by spiders, dragonflies, and praying mantises," says Laura Erickson. "One of their worst predators is the CAT." On their breeding grounds, most Ruby-throated Hummingbird deaths are by accidents (picture windows and things like that) and from cold weather. You may remember Laura's comments made from Costa Rica in this season's first hummingbird report: "If a baby hummer survives its first perilous migration (remember--most of them fly over the Gulf of Mexico during hurricane season!) it still has to figure out all the brand-new dangers that it never saw before in its life. Many snakes kill birds in the tropics. Some lurk in flowers that hummers feed from--if an unsuspecting hummer ventures too close, it's suppertime for the snake! Other snakes crawl along tree branches at night trying to sense warm-blooded bodies while hummingbirds are fast asleep. Forest falcons live in the tropics year-round, and Sharp-shinned Hawks spend their winters there right with the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. There are many more spider species, including some huge ones, and many insects large enough to take a 3.5-gram hummingbird. Predation is a far bigger problem to a small bird in the tropics than it is in the north!" Flight Gear in Tip-Top Shape: Discussion of Challenge Question #25: "How does preening help a hummingbird fly?" Preening helps keep the feathers clean and aligned properly, making hummingbirds more aerodynamic and their wings more efficient. Year-End Evaluation: Please Share Your Thoughts! Please take a few minutes to share your suggestions and comments in our Year-End Evaluation Form below. The information you provide at the end of each year is the single most important tool used to guide our planning. Journey North Year End Evaluation Please share your thoughts How to Respond to Today's Challenge Questions: Please answer ONLY ONE question in EACH e-mail message. 1. Address an e-mail message to: jn-challenge-humm@learner.org 2. In the Subject Line of your message write: Challenge Question #26 (or #27 or #28). 3. In the body of EACH message, give your answer to ONE of the questions above. The Next Hummingbird Migration Update Will Be Posted on May 17, 2001. Copyright 2001 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form