This story was first published on November 14, 2014 as part of our series, Bird Files.
Bob Mulvihill is an ornithologist with National Aviary‘s Department of Conservation and Field Research.
He banded the first rufous hummingbird in Pennsylvania in 1990, when he was with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Powdermill banding station in Westmoreland County.
LISTEN to the story
Just about every written account of the Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) uses the word “feisty.” That’s because this 3-
inch-long, bird, weighing 3 grams, is anything but pint-sized when it comes to defending its territory or driving off potential predators. With its aerial maneuverability and speed, the Rufous Hummingbird is a match for intruders hundreds of times its size. Jays, hawks, cats, and even humans are likely to buzz off when this mighty-mite of a bird dive-bombs them!
The Rufous Hummingbird shows its toughness in other ways, too. It has the longest migration of any hummingbird, routinely flying 2,500 miles between breeding and wintering grounds. When it returns to nest in the Cascades and foothills of the Rocky Mountains from Oregon to Alaska, it usually finds snow still covering the ground. But, this hardy hummingbird seeks out tiny flying insects that become active on sunny days and survives even in very cold weather.
Historically, the range of the Rufous Hummingbird was confined to these northwestern areas in summer and to Mexico in the
winter. In the past few decades, though, the species has begun to expand its range eastward. Pioneering Rufouses have plotted a new migratory route that now regularly brings them all the way across the continent.
When they show up in the East in the late fall, they often must again endure cold temperatures, and even snow! But after staying for several weeks — during which time, researchers have learned, they molt their wing feathers — most of them continue migrating on to new wintering areas in the Southeast and along the Gulf Coast.
Although the adult male Rufous Hummingbird bears unmistakable bright orange-brown plumage, females and immature birds closely resemble other species, including the familiar Ruby-throated Hummingbird. But any Ruby-throated Hummingbirds that visited your feeders throughout spring and summer have departed by early October.
So, consider leaving your hummingbird feeder up until after Thanksgiving. And let researchers know about your sightings to help us learn even more about the biology of these cold weather “hummingbrrrds!”
The National Aviary’s Bob Mulvihill encourages you to contact him with hummingbird sightings after October 15 or any time if the bird appears conspicuously different than the expected ruby-throated species at ro**************@****ry.org.
Bird calls for this segment come courtesy of The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Geoffrey A.Keller, William W. H. Gunn, Richard Nelson.
