A Juvenile Rufous Looks in the Window!

Tellico Village is an incorporated community on the western shore of the Tellico Reservoir in Loudon County, Tennessee.  The community is suburban in arrangement but each cluster of housing is separated by wooded areas and the entire community borders the Tellico Reservoir, also known as Tellico Lake.

From Joan and Charles Omarzu's deck where a hummingbird feeder hangs, there is a wonderful view of the surrounding countryside, and in the distance, Mount LeConte and other features of the Great Smoky Mountains can be seen. 

Joan hung a feeder out last November but did not notice a hummingbird visiting during that season. She also noted later that the feeder was not easily viewed from the window. This year, she initially decided she would not hang a feeder, but on December 2nd, Charles thought he saw a hummingbird around the deck. Joan watched the deck for a while and the hummingbird came to the window and hovered in front of her. She quickly made sugar water and hung a feeder out!

Above, Mark Armstrong, Master Bander for hummingbirds and songbirds in east Tennessee, removes the hummingbird from the trap after it is captured and places it in a mesh bag to hold it safely until he is ready to band it, a time-span that can usually be measured in seconds.

The hummingbird trap was hand-made by Mark, who is a biologist and the bird curator at the Knoxville Zoo, and past president of the Knoxville Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society.  A sliding door, positioned on one side of the trap, is opened and closed by the tension of a line attached to a fishing reel that Mark holds in his hand. When the line is pulled tight, the door lifts up.  When tension is released the door comes down and captures the hummer inside.    

Bird banders are specially trained and licensed volunteers.  In addition to earning a songbird banding license, the hummingbird bander spends hundreds of hours specifically training to band hummingbirds.  Banders either purchase or make their own equipment.

Even the specially numbered bands issued by the Bird Banding Laboratory come on a metal sheet that must be carefully disassembled and the tiny numbered strips formed into rings that will fit the hummingbird's leg. The rings are then placed on a wire in numbered sequence, ready to be opened with pliars and closed again around the banded hummingbird's leg.

This hummingbird's band begins with J43.  The J represents a beginning series of numbers, shortening the number sequence recorded and helping banders recognize a band number sequence more quickly.

Friend, Claire Manzo, who has also had a wintering hummingbird at her Tellico Village home in the past, takes a video of the banding process to show their bird club.  Claire has organized the Tellico Village birding organization, the Tellico Villiage Birders, and is the current president.

Above, Mark measures the length of the hummingbird's tail feathers and below he measures the length of the beak.

In the image below you see the small stocking that cradles the hummer.  Mark counts the gorget feathers that have developed as a part of his record on this juvenile.  

The juvenile's bare belly is revealed when Mark blows air through a straw.  Both males and females have a bear belly that is concealed by feathers.  The belly area is the place where most of the hummingbird's fat is stored.  In this image you can also see the tiny foot and the gorget feathers reflecting a deep red as they change with the angle of light.  

When Mark weighed the bird, he remarked that this bird had the heaviest weight he had recorded during the winter months.  Large fat deposits are usually an indication of a bird getting ready for migration or one that has just arrived at its migrating destination.

The juvenile is molting baby feathers and growing in new rufous ones on his back and head.  You can see the mixture of rufous and greenish feathers on his back and the gray and green feathers on his crown that will be replaced by rufous feathers when he matures.  

Above, the distinctly rufous colors in the tail feathers.

When his examination is completed, Mark places the hummingbird in Joan's hand for release.

Often a Rufous hummingbird relaxes during the examination process and sits in the hand without noticing that it is free to fly. Mark gives the juvenile a gentle nudge with his finger and he buzzes away.

Visit Mark Armstrong's interview earlier this year with Live at Five at Four as he is banding hummingbirds at his home during late summer (a brief commercial precedes the interview).  Mark and his wife, Jane, live in Seymour, Tennessee, and having assisted their banding operation a couple of times, I can say they have hundreds of hummingbirds visiting their feeders.  The numbers of birds visiting a yard's feeders is influenced by the number of years feeders have been present.  Breeding birds are loyal to breeding areas and migrating birds remember their nectar source.

In east Tennessee, report winter hummingbird sightings to Mark Armstrong at Woodthrush@bellsouth.net or 865-748-2224. For a list of contact information for other eastern areas, visit winter reporting on the Hummer Study Group website or report sightings to Bob and Martha Sargent, Rubythroat@aol.com or 205-681-2888.

Links and Resources:

Western Hummingbirds Wintering in Tennessee
Allen's Hummingbird in Tennessee
Rufous Hummer in Knoxville 
Other blog posts on Wintering hummingbirds in Tennessee
In recent years, fourteen species of hummingbirds have been documented in the east during fall and winter months.  Visit Bob Sargent's information on wintering hummingbirds
Bob Sargent describes the Rufous Hummingbird as very cold-hardy.
Sargent on wintering Calliopes and the Allen's Hummingbird
Hummingbird banding
Hummingbirds in watercolor
Hummingbird art on Vickie's Sketchbook blog
Cornell's All About Birds:  Rufous Hummingbirds
Bird Banding Laboratory
Birds of North America--I highly recommend subscribing to the online version for detailed descriptions of all North American bird species.

A Female Juvenile Rufous in Union County, Tennessee

This juvenile female Rufous Hummingbird is currently wintering in the Sharp's Chapel area of Union County Tennessee at the home of Jim Turnblazer.  The habitat is open pasture land and grassland with shrubby edges, a very different habitat from the wooded suburban area selected by the Rufous female in the previous post.  

Female Rufous hummingbirds are more difficult to identify than males which have more rufous coloration in their feathers, even as immature birds. The wind was biting cold on the morning of December 15th while Mark Armstrong, Jane Kading and Jim Turnblazer worked together to set up the trap near the same area that this hummer was accustomed to finding the feeder.

That famous Rufous personality became evident as the hummingbird advanced to the area of the feeder, despite the activity, and hovered in the nearby shrub making a hard "tik, tik, tik" call. Mark has described this call as the sound he often hears when the hummer is in the vicinity and sometimes before it approaches the feeder.

This hummingbird was not deterred by the activity, and was soon captured in the trap, above.  The utility light hanging to the right helps to keep the sugar-water from freezing when temps drop below freezing.

Above Mark, gets his band ready while Jane holds the bird temporarily, and below he removes the hummer from the mesh bag.

The examination and banding of the bird is efficient and progresses quickly.  The band is placed on the right leg first and measurements are taken to help identify the species and document the bird.

Above the wing is measured with a digital instrument, and below the tail length is measured.  Each of these measurements help to confirm the species and sex. Females generally have longer wings.  Tail feather width and length can sometimes be the distinguishing characteristic between two very similar species.

Below, the beak is examined through two magnification aids to determine the amount of grooving.  The grooving in the beak helps to identify the age of the bird.  This young female had a number of grooves in her beak indicated that she had hatched in 2013 and is referred to by biologists as a "hatch year bird".

Mark uses a simple straw to blow belly feathers aside and examine the appearance of fat.  Both male and female hummingbirds have a bare patch on their bellies that is hidden by feathers, but only the female incubates young.  Examining this bare area for fat deposits helps to determine the general health of the bird and whether she is getting the nutrients she needs to sustain a good body weight.

The hummingbird was then weighed, below.  Her weight was found to be a normal weight for her species and age. Through-out this examination, Mark holds the bird in a small bag made from hosiery material.  The bag helps him control the bird, keeping her calm and reducing stress.

Examination of the tail feathers show the distinguishing rufous coloration that is found in the Selasphorus species of hummingbirds, which include the Allen's, the Rufous and the Broad-tailed species.  All of these species have been found wintering or migrating through Tennessee in past years.  

Below, you can see the variations of color in the back feathers of this individual, ranging from gray to lime green to aqua, even in the dull light on this overcast day.

Many of the juvenile feathers appear grayish as they gradually change from juvenile plumage to the brighter colors more characteristic of mature birds.  Her gorget feathers are still developing and the number of irredescent orange-red feathers on her throat may increase by the time she matures.  The number of gorget feathers varies with each individual female.  As with the male's gorget feathers, the iridescence in these feathers makes the color of the surface appear different with changes in the reflecting light.  

While we were warming our hands by the fire, we watched for the hummingbird's return to the feeder. A second feeder was provided near a window around the corner from the porch feeder and we enjoyed seeing her visit this feeder several times before we departed. Jim recently reported that she is still present and visits both feeders frequently.

Next:  Our third visit--a male Rufous in Loudon County

In east Tennessee, report hummingbird sightings to Mark Armstrong at Woodthrush@bellsouth.net or 865-748-2224. For a list of contact information for other eastern areas, visit winter reporting on the Hummer Study Group website or report sightings to Bob and Martha Sargent, Rubythroat@aol.com or 205-681-2888.

Links and Resources:

Western Hummingbirds Wintering in Tennessee
Allen's Hummingbird in Tennessee
Rufous Hummer in Knoxville 
Other blog posts on Wintering hummingbirds in Tennessee
In recent years, fourteen species of hummingbirds have been documented in the east during fall and winter months.  Visit Bob Sargent's information on wintering hummingbirds
Bob Sargent describes the Rufous Hummingbird as very cold-hardy.
Sargent on wintering Calliopes and the Allen's Hummingbird
Hummingbird banding
Hummingbirds in watercolor
Hummingbird art on Vickie's Sketchbook blog
Cornell's All About Birds:  Rufous Hummingbirds
Bird Banding Laboratory
Birds of North America--I highly recommend subscribing to the online version for detailed descriptions of all North American bird species.

Wintering Hummingbirds and a Recovered Band

There is a lot of mystery around what attracts Tennessee's wintering Rufous Hummingbirds to a particular habitat.  These habitats are termed "pockets", areas of habitat that are attracting western hummingbirds that are migrating in an easterly direction rather than taking a traditional route south.  

Banding is the primary way in which biologists are learning about these migration changes.  If you look closely at the image above, you can see the band this hummingbird wears on her right leg.

Mark Armstrong, east Tennessee's Master Bander, identified her as a mature Rufous female when he captured and examined her on December 15th in the Oak Ridge area, just across the Roan County line.  She was already wearing a band.  Mark reported the band number and location to the Bird Banding Laboratory at Patuxent Wldlife Research Center in Patuxent Maryland.  Today, he received the following information:  

Species:  RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD

Date banded:  12/21/2012

Banding location:  ...TALLAHASSEE, LEON COUNTY, FLORIDA, USA

Age:  HATCHED IN 2012

Sex:  FEMALE

In her hatching year winter she migrated to Florida, and in her second year, from late October to this date in December, she has wintered in Tennessee.  If you draw a straight line from Oak Ridge, Tennessee to Tallahassee, Florida your line will go due south. 

Photo credit:  Mark Armstrong

The Birds of North America's most recent range map is shown below.  In their non-breeding season, Rufous Hummingbirds are found from northern Mexico to Florida, primarily along coastal areas.  But they are also occuring inland in southeastern states in pockets.  Not yet shown on the map are the many Rufous Hummingbirds that are being banded during the winter months in Pennsylvania!

There are many unanswered questions, but it is certain, that banding these birds is the only way we will understand their migraton, their foraging habits in the winter, and their survival strategies.  If you don't already have a feeder out, put one out!  Many of these birds arrive as early as August.  Others arrive in December! 

In east Tennessee, report sightings to Mark Armstrong (above) at Woodthrush@bellsouth.net or 865-748-2224. For a list of contact information for other eastern areas, visit winter reporting on the Hummer Study Group website or report sightings to Bob and Martha Sargent, Rubythroat@aol.com or 205-681-2888.

Next:  More on the three birds banded on Dec 15th and an update on some of the others previously reported.

Links and Resources:

Bird Banding Laboratory
Birds of North America--I highly recommend subscribing to the online version.
Western Hummingbirds Wintering in Tennessee
Allen's Hummingbird in Tennessee
Rufous Hummer in Knoxville 
Other blog posts on Wintering hummingbirds in Tennessee
In recent years, fourteen species of hummingbirds have been documented in the east during fall and winter months.  Visit Bob Sargent's information on wintering hummingbirds
Bob Sargent describes the Rufous Hummingbird as very cold-hardy.
Sargent on wintering Calliopes and the Allen's Hummingbird
Hummingbird banding
Hummingbirds in watercolor
Hummingbird art on Vickie's Sketchbook blog
Cornell's All About Birds:  Rufous Hummingbirds

Three Wintering Rufous Hummingbirds in East Tennessee

Sunday, December 15th, was a cold and windy day, creating considerable discomfort at times as I accompanied Jane and Mark Armstrong on their travels to band three wintering hummingbirds.  Without a doubt, the reward of seeing three of these hardy birds in one day far exceeded the discomforts of early hours and occasional numb fingers. 

Take a look at the image above and the two directly below it and you'll see how different each of these wintering Rufous Hummingbirds appeared.

In the top image you see a mature female Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) with a large number of gorget feathers on her throat and thick feathering on her brow. Directly above, appearing quite different, an immature female is pictured.  And below, an immature male Rufous Hummingbird in his first winter season after hatching.

Each of these wintering birds was located in a different county in Tennessee, and captured and examined by Mark Armstrong, east Tennesee's Master Bander of hummingbirds, and assisted by Jane, who helps with the set up and records the data Mark collects.

Once the trap is in place with the feeder inside it, Mark sits quietly, a distance away from the feeder, with a fishing reel in hand.  The line on the reel is attached to a wire door on the trap that slides up and down, and can be lifted with tension on the line, or lowered with the release of tension once the hummingbird is inside the trap. In the above image, Mark is removing the captured hummingbird from the trap.

The morning was overcast and 33 degrees F with 4 mph wind gusts, making sitting still outside for any length of time very cold.  After briefly rubbing his hands together to stimulate some warmth, Mark opened the bag to examine the hummingbird that had been visiting Janet and Bob Cushman's feeder in Roan County since approximately October 27th.  The couple noticed a difference in this bird that lingered behind after their Ruby-throated Hummingbirds had departed.      

To Mark's surprise and excitement, he found a band on this hummingbird's leg!  The band series indicated it was not one of Mark's bands, meaning the band had been placed on the bird in another geographic area. The recovery of a band is great news for a bander and is actually what banding is all about.  Once the banding data is retrieved, Mark will know more about this bird's age, where she has been before arriving in Tennessee, and if lucky, perhaps her breeding area.

Above, Mark is measuring the hummingbird's wing.  Wing measurements, as well as tail measurements, are important in distinguishing similar hummingbird species.  The Eastern migration of Rufous Hummingbirds has been studied for many years, with the first record of a wintering Rufous species in the eastern United States reported in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1909.

Above, Mark measures the beak length with a digital instrument.

During the fall of 1988, Bob and Martha Sargent began studying wintering hummingbirds in Alabama, Georgia, Forida, Mississippi, and Tennessee, compiling reports of these birds, and when possible, banding them.  Comparing records from past years, and their compilation of reports from the six winters from 1990 to 1996, in just this five state region, 1,643 Selasphorus hummingbirds were reported (Broad-tailed, Rufous and Allen's species) during winter months, showing a substantial increase in numbers.  95% of those recorded were Rufous Hummingbirds.

In the images above, Mark is using magnification to examine the beak for grooving.  Grooving indicates the bird is immature and still in its hatching year.  This female inidividual had no grooving in her beak which means she is a mature bird.  It is possible the banding data, once retrieved, may identify her age more specifically.

Above, Mark makes an approximate count of her gorget feathers, and Jane records the data below.

Rufous hummingbirds breed and spend their summer months in the western states.  Very little is presently known about where these wintering hummingbirds are breeding and what route they may be taking as they reach Tennessee.  Some may be passing through Tennessee en route to other areas.

Mark places the hummingbird in Janet's hand for release.  Janet recently reported that their female Rufous has been visiting the feeders in the two days since her capture, though she visits less frequently during warmer periods.

Next:  Our second stop, a juvenile female

Links and Resources:

Western Hummingbirds Wintering in Tennessee
Allen's Hummingbird in Tennessee
Rufous Hummer in Knoxville 
In recent years, fourteen species of hummingbirds have been documented in the east during fall and winter months.  In east Tennessee, report sightings to Mark Armstrong at Woodthrush@bellsouth.net or 865-748-2224.  For a list of contact information for other eastern areas, visit winter reporting on the Hummer Study Group website or report sightings to Bob and Martha Sargent, Rubythroat@aol.com or 205-681-2888.
Other blog posts on Wintering hummingbirds in Tennessee
Visit Bob Sargent's information on wintering hummingbirds
Bob Sargent describes the Rufous Hummingbird as very cold-hardy.
Sargent on wintering Calliopes and the Allen's Hummingbird
Hummingbird banding
Hummingbirds in watercolor
Hummingbird art on Vickie's Sketchbook blog
Cornell's All About Birds:  Rufous Hummingbirds

Wintering Hummingbirds Fairing Well Through Snow and Cold

Seeing a hummingbird drinking from a feeder with a layer of snow on the surface is not exactly what we've been accustomed to expecting in Tennessee, but we could be seeing this more frequently as more hummingbirds migrate to the east and remain in our state for a portion of the winter.       
Photo credit:  Wally Manspeaker

We generally think of hummingbirds as fragile to cold and as migrating to warmer climates in Mexico or Central America, where they can find nectar-producing flowers and insects.  In actuality, the migration patterns and the reason for these varied patterns are not clearly understood, except that they follow food sources.  Some species, such as the Allen's and Anna's on the west coast, show a northward movement in winter and not all members of the species follow the same migration routes.

Mark Armstrong, our hummingbird Master Bander in east Tennessee, reports that the Rufous hummingbirds that he captures and bands in Tennessee in the winter are healthy birds with a good supply of fat, many of them molting and replacing their molted feathers with healthy new ones.  Molting and feather replacement during the winter months is an indicator that the hummingbirds are getting the nutrients they need for healthy feather production.

Photo credit:  Wally Manspeaker

Wally Manspeaker lives in northeast Tennessee, in Russellville, an area of the state that is reporting many wintering hummingbirds. Tennessee's winter hummingbirds seem to be migrating through areas of higher elevation near mountain ridges and plateaus. The female Rufous Hummingbird, above, was banded by Armstrong on November 25th and has been in the area since early November.

Wally Manspeaker has been visited by wintering hummingbirds in the past.  In 2011, he had the fifth recorded Allen's Hummingbird  in Tennessee, and when the same male returned the next November as a mature bird, it became the second Allen's to return in successive years.   The article above appeared in the November 2013 issue of Birds and Blooms Extra magazine.  Wally is still hoping the male Allen's will return in the next few weeks.  In the meantime, he has a lovely female Rufous to observe.

Photo credit:  Billie Cantwell

Though northeast Tennessee seems to be a popular location, hummers are showing up throughout the state. The pretty male Rufous above is spending his third winter in west Knoxville at the home of Billie Cantwell and Colin Leonard.  Billie is president of the Knoxville Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society and the organizer of KTOS's annual Wonder of Hummingbirds Festival.

Photo credit:  Billie Cantwell

Above and below, you see the same Rufous male as a juvenile who first arrived for the winter in December of 2011.

If you think people become attached to their summer hummingbirds, imagine being host to a wintering individual that returns each year, or if you are one of the lucky ones to have successive visitors, the excitement of wondering what wintering species will visit your home next!  Biologists believe that as generations of hummingbirds migrate in an easterly direction, the clumping of wintering birds will change, and wintering hummingbirds will spread out into broader territories.

Imagine being as comfortable seeing a hummingbird during winter months as we are seeing  a White-throated Sparrow or a Hermit Thrush.

Photo credit:  Kathy Sellars   A probable female Rufous in northwest Tennessee, in Dyersburg, that arrived around the first of November.

And here is a treat for you from my artist friend, Elva Paulson, in Oregon, who enjoys investigating and sketching nature. She clearly is also an excellent photographer!  Her curiousity led her to a willow grove where she settled into a spot to photograph and sketch the wildlife that visited sapsucker wells drilled in the willow bark.

Photo credit:  Dale and Elva Paulson    

She caught these beautiful images, above and below, of female Rufous hummingbirds visiting sapsucker wells drilled in the willows.  On this occasion, she encountered at least three hummingbirds visiting the sap wells, though they were intolerant of each other's presence, and chased each other.  Hummers are as aggressive about protecting sap sources as they are flower nectar.

Photo credit:  Dale and Elva Paulson

In the Birds of North America's Online account of the Rufous Hummingbird's feeding habits, the Rufous species is said to feed on sap and insects attracted to sap from wells excavated by Red-naped Sapsuckers. The Rufous species breeds in the northwestestern states up into Canada, including Oregon. In the spring, when arrival on breeding grounds precedes the blooming of flowers, the Rufous feeds on sap wells released from the bark of willows and alders.

Though observations of wintering hummingbirds foraging in the southeast are still rare, this feeding behavior also makes sense in Tennessee, as wintering Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers arrive, excavating sap wells that also provide a nectar source for wintering hummingbirds.

Visit Elva's Field Notes--Look Who Came to Dinner to read the story of her encounter with hummingbirds in the willows and see her beautiful field sketches.  She also describes another earlier encounter in Sweet and Sour Dinner:  More About Sapsuckers.

Links and Resources:

Western Hummingbirds Wintering in Tennessee
Allen's Hummingbird in Tennessee
Rufous Hummer in Knoxville 
In recent years, fourteen species of hummingbirds have been documented in the east during fall and winter months.  In east Tennessee, report sightings to Mark Armstrong at Woodthrush@bellsouth.net or 865-748-2224.  For a list of contact information for other eastern areas, visit winter reporting on the Hummingbird Study Group website or report sightings to Bob and Martha Sargent, Rubythroat@aol.com or 205-681-2888.
Other blog posts on Wintering hummingbirds in Tennessee
Visit Bob Sargent's information on wintering hummingbirds
Bob Sargent describes the Rufous Hummingbird as very cold-hardy.
Sargent on wintering Calliopes and the Allen's Hummingbird
Hummingbird banding
Hummingbirds in watercolor
Hummingbird art on Vickie's Sketchbook blog
Cornell's All About Birds:  Rufous Hummingbirds