By Derek Stoner, Family Programs Coordinator
Continuing our story of wintering hummingbirds, the big question is: how do you attract one of these birds to your yard?
During migration, these remarkable birds navigate through the landscape of suburbia and manage to find tiny a tiny oasis of habitat that can sustain their basic needs. If an ideal location is found, then that is where the bird may spend its wintering period.
Of the backyard “winter hummingbird hotels” that I have visited(eight in total), there are four key components that each location has in common:
1. A feeder that is kept full of fresh sugar water(and not allowed to freeze solid). Heat lamps on the feeder are a way to solve the freezing issue.
2. Thick cover for the bird to roost in at night. Rufous Hummingbirds seem to prefer to roost in an evergreens or thick vines.
3. Late-blooming flowers such as sage, that provide a natural nectar source.
4. Native plants that host a variety of insects and spiders for the hummingbird to eat. Arthopods make up a large percentage of their winter diet.
If you are so lucky to attract and host a hummingbird during the winter, you have the unique opportunity to have the bird banded for science. A professional bird bander with special training in hummingbirds can use a simple trap to capture the bird, which is then weighed, measured, banded(with the tiniest of metal bands on its leg!), photographed and released.
Through banding efforts, scientists have learned that some hummingbirds will return to the exact same backyard winter after winter. This evidence points to the fact that we are observing a natural phenomenon, and not just the case of some birds getting lost and ending up on the east coast. An example of adaptive behavior may the reason for this situation, as these hardy birds are finding suitable habitat here without migrating all the way to Mexico or Central America.
So, keep your hummingbird feeders up, cross your fingers, and let us know if a little rust-colored hummingbird shows up in your yard this winter!