Rare hummingbird gets banded in Ohio

Rare hummingbird gets banded in Ohio
                        

It was bound to happen. Gradually, one by one, the rare western hummingbirds show up in states east of the Mississippi River. Sometimes it comes down to banding a fall hummer to know for sure. This happened when the first Ohio Allen’s hummingbird was banded in Holmes County. That bird was identified by Allen Chartier. This time the hummingbird in question was thought to be either a ruby-throated or a black-chinned, but it was up to Allen to find out for sure, which he did last week.

To prepare for this column, I read parts of Steve N.G. Howell’s excellent book, Hummingbirds of North America, the Photographic Guide. Howell answers a lot of questions about hummingbirds, something he does well in all his books, covering a wide range of birds, as well as birding in Mexico.

There are around 320 different kinds of hummingbirds, but only 14 breed in the United States. It’s a different story in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. In Ecuador alone there are over 150 species of hummingbirds. There are many books about hummingbirds. You can choose from books of beautiful photos or more technical options such as the hummingbird section in Kenn Kaufman’s Field Guide to Advanced Birding.

Hummingbirds are found from Alaska to the southern tip of South America. Hummingbirds and swifts are closely related. Both have small feet, long wings and are capable of amazing flight. Hummingbirds can even fly backward.

Because they use a great deal of energy during the day, hummers experiencing cold nights can lower their metabolic rate and temperatures and become torpid. Howell said, “Torpid hummingbirds can appear to be dead, nailed to a perch.”

It seems that might be the case for western hummers that show up in Ohio and Indiana during freezing weather.

We see a lot of hummingbirds in the late summer and fall that appear to be females. There may be more adult females than males because, as Howell explains, “male hummers play no part in nesting — they do little more than sing, display and copulate with as many females as possible.”

Also, young male and female hummingbirds look much like adult females, helping to explain why so few fall hummers appear to be males. I also found it interesting to learn all North American hummingbirds normally lay two unmarked, white eggs.

Black-chinned and ruby-throated hummingbirds are closely related. Females and young birds can be hard to identify. Normally, ruby-throated are found in the east while black-chinned live in the west. Only when post-breeding birds from the west show up in the east is there a problem with identification. So when a November hummingbird in apparent female plumage showed up near Columbus, it was time to call Allen Chartier to solve the mystery. When the bird was banded, it was found to be Ohio’s first black-chinned hummingbird.

After the banding, the hummingbird returned to the feeder but the following day was not present for most of the day. However, the next morning it was back and was still coming to the feeder on Tuesday, Nov. 24.

There have been more exciting birds found around the area during the last several weeks. As always, the best way to find out about them is to check the different Facebook birding pages and to call the local birding hotline at 574-642-1335.

Good birding.

Bruce Glick can be emailed at bglick2@gmail.com.


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