Seward, Alaska
As the clouds moved in last night, the wind calmed, and the temperature rose to 40 by mid-afternoon. Taking a chance, USFWS biologist and hummingbird bander Todd Eskelin drove two hours from the Kenai Wildlife Refuge in Soldotna to try to band the ANNA’S HUMMINGBIRD recently spotted in the Seward area.
Fortunately, the hummer had been feeding regularly all morning, and reappeared shortly after Todd arrived. He carefully set up his custom-made wire trap on a table under the yard feeder and relocated the homeowner’s feeder inside. He then moved away, holding the end of the kite string that held the door open and quietly waited.
After about 15 minutes, the green hummer descended from a nearby spruce where he had been singing. Buzzing around the strange contraption, he quickly figured out how to get in the opening.
Snick! Todd released the line and the door shut. Moving swiftly, Todd reached in, quickly caught the hummer, and popped him in a soft, small bag made from the toe of a panty hose. He instantly became quiet and calm despite being captured by aliens.
No band! Another data source for science! The hatch year male, (December to April hatch), soon had an extraordinarily small band on his right leg, was weighed, and sported a dab of special blue paint on his crown. The young male hummer was a healthy weight, 5.1 grams, (0.179 ounces), exactly the weight of a US nickel.
The band is the smallest bird band possible, one that Todd painstakingly cut with a jeweler’s saw from a special metal card imprinted with the numbered bands, sanded smooth, and formed into a ring crimped shut with specialized banding pliers.
Todd noted that female hummers do not have a brood patch, but instead keep their tiny eggs warm with their matchstick legs, swollen with blood to increase their incubation success. Thus, females get a slightly larger band to accommodate the swelling.
Using a magnifying lens to examine the needle-like bill for wrinkles, Todd explained that the bills of immature birds have wrinkles and adults have smooth bills. This one still had a few wrinkles. Also, magenta spangles dotted his head and throat. A female does not sport the head spangles and her jewels are concentrated in the center of her throat.
Todd gently placed the tiny wonder in the thrilled host’s palm to allow him to launch. After a microsecond, off he zoomed. From capture to release was an incredibly scant five minutes.
The host reported the spooked bird stayed away all afternoon, returning five hours later at dusk to get topped off before nightfall and torpor.
His capture and bling are already helping science understand the mystery of the dispersal of the non-migratory Anna’s Hummingbird species to Alaska as they expand their range.
For more detailed hummingbird identification information, Todd recommended George West's book, “North American Hummingbirds."
To attract Anna’s, consider planting nasturtiums and other hardy flowers that last into September or even October. Use easily cleaned glass feeders with large red plastic flowers and perches to let the hummer rest while drinking the sugar water (1 part sugar to 4 parts water). No red dye is needed. The bulk of the hummer’s diet is spiders, invertebrates, and insects, gleaned from the woods and nectar and pollen from flowers, but the sugar water is a nice hit of energy.
Good work, Todd! So glad your trip was successful!
Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
