Posted on 05/31/2016 12:38:20 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Sometimes it’s surprising to discover how little we know about common plants or animals. Consider the ruby-throated hummingbird. If you live in the eastern half of Canada or the United States and have spotted a hummingbird hovering around a feeder in the backyard in summer, this is the bird you saw. But while scientists have documented many of the feeding and mating behaviors of the birds and that the birds migrate south to Central America and Cuba, there are still plenty of mysteries, such as whether the birds go the long way through Mexico when they migrate or whether they take a shortcut across the Gulf of Mexico.
It turns out that the tiny birds, some of which are small enough to fit in your hand, could easily take the shortcut, even though they’d get no break on the journey. Based on analyses of wing shape, body size and fat reserves, some of these tiny birds could fly more than 2,000 kilometers in the right winds. That’s more than enough to get them the 1,000 kilometers across the Gulf, researchers report March 9 in The Auk.
Theodore Zenzal Jr. and Frank Moore of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg studied ruby-throated hummingbirds at the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama, one of the birds’ stopovers on their journey south. From 2010 to 2014, they captured birds in the refuge during late summer and early fall. Birds were weighed, measured, banded and released.
Zenzal and Moore found that older birds tended to arrive at the refuge earlier and stayed for shorter times than younger birds. They also had more fat that could fuel a long voyage, and older males had the most. Based on these fuel loads, the birds could fly for another 2,260 kilometers on average without stopping for food, the team calculates.
That was just the average, though. Some very skinny birds arrived at the refuge, and had enough fat for just a short trip of less than 20 kilometers. This may explain why some hummingbirds stuck around in the refuge for a couple of weeks — they may have needed to bulk up before taking off again. Other birds had plenty of fat, though, enough to go more than 4,000 kilometers.
Hummingbirds’ small size may actually be an advantage when it comes to long-distance flight, the researchers note. These birds are really good at taking in a lot of fuel, and being small means that they can carry a larger percentage of their body weight as fat than can larger birds.
But just because the hummingbirds may be capable of taking the shortcut across the water doesn’t mean they actually do. Weather patterns aren’t favorable for such a flight until late fall, Zenzal and Moore say. So it may make more sense, especially for juveniles, to take the long way around since there are opportunities for pit stops should they be needed.
I just saw my very FIRST bright orange 'Hooded Oriole' and I nearly jumped in the air when I saw it. WOW. I thought it was just migrating but then I saw it AGAIN yesterday. Beautiful bird!
Love to watch and hear them. They day birds don’t have memories.....funny when they show up here they always fly to the spot where the feeder hangs when I have it up.
Yep....I was told once birds have no memory. Each season when they come in town they all hover around cabins where the feeders should be!
Ditto! They should be showing up in GA in the next week or so.
It’s amazing to see one land on a tiny twig and the twig doesn’t move.
BTW - I don’t think for one nano-second they “evolved” from, uh, say, humm, condors.
I use 3:1 with well water here in central Oklahoma. Hummingbirds seem to love it. Best viewing is in late summer, wife and I sit in the backyard and watch the hummingbird wars.
Mine were a little late this year too. I’m on the other side of the mountains from you.(NC WV) I used to put up my feeders as soon as I saw one. A dominant male would set up camp and chase away any hummers that would come near. Last year I waited three weeksw after I saw my first to set them out. It became like the Battle of Britain with as many as 8 birds at each feeder at dawn and dusk.
Same results this year. Only problem is that I have to refill both feeders daily.
LOL! We put up two feeders this year, to try and calm down the warfare. They sure do like to fight!
-JT
There’s a mated pair of Roadrunners with a nest near me. Baby hummingbirds are like little snacks to them, as well as baby quail, baby doves, and every lizard they can get their greasy beaks on. They’re regular genocidal killing machines when it comes to feeding their young.
It’s a Scott’s Oriole that I have here I think. There seem to be two or three pairs. Orioles are beautiful, even I will admit that (I don’t care much for birds). Hubby loves watching them all and identifying them.
This is the first year I haven’t had hummingbirds staying around but maybe they will come in later and stay the summer.
I think God is working on me so that I develop an appreciation of His creations. ;)
The Swallows arrived two months early this year, but the Hummingbirds a little late.
The notion that birds have no memory is absolutely FALSE. I know this first hand.
ping for the mix
It sounds cray cray, but there’s a theory going on about hummingbirds:
Because so many people feed hummingbirds in the southern part of the US, some hummingbirds are no longer making the migratory trip to Mexico or Central America, but are instead hanging out by the feeders and making them the end point of their journey.
Other hummingbirds continue to make the long migration just as their ancestors did, though.
These groups, it is theorized, with someday break into 2 distinct subspecies, or something.
Thoughts? I am ign’ant on the issue.
Birds are mysterious - we still don’t really know for sure how homing pigeons ‘work’, for instance.
There have been many anecdotal stories where birds not only returned to the same yard, but to the same bush or tree to nest, year after year; and I think it’s been shown in some controlled studies.
This is an interesting book suggesting that birds not only have memory, but ‘traditions’:
-JT
In my area I have one year'round. Probably doesn't want to risk giving up my feeder. LOL
I don’t get swallows to my knowledge here and haven’t seen an Oriole in orange.
I do get tons of starlings, house finches and California quail. I’ve got two pair of Eurasian Collared Dove? nesting here, a pair of robins and killdeer who keep trying to run me out of my garden.
I do appreciate the golden eagles and the red tailed hawks. There is a great horned owl that has shown up a couple of times this spring - causes me to smug the house when he comes. :)
FWIW, in this peak time for Hummingbirds I have to refill my feeder ONCE A WEEK. That’s 16 ounces of food consumed in one week. Lotsa little tummy-fulls. LOL
The past couple of years I have had one. My feed is on the front porch. Last October I was on the porch and it flew close to me and looked at me then flew off. I didn’t see it again. I think it was saying good-bye. It’s back now. I assume it’s the same one. Fascinating indeed.
I think God made them to cheer us up. How can you be sad while watching a hummingbird?
I’m going through 5 cups daily. Three in the larger feeder, two in the smaller. I expect this to slow down by July. If not, I’m going to have to make a gallon sized feeder.
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