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The Daily Bucket: Rufous Hummingbirds are revving their tiny rockets and riding the skies southbound [1]
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Date: 2022-09-24
Juvenile male Rufous Hummingbird flashing his gold-spangled gorget from a Rhody branch in our Seattle garden, summer of 2020.
Rufous Hummingbirds are completely migratory, and they’re at it now. They breed from the Northwest to Alaska (61° N), the northernmost point of any hummingbird, and fly to Mexico for the winter. While Alaska to Mexico isn’t the longest flight for any bird, by body length it’s right up there. Arctic Terns travel 11,000 miles one-way. They’re 13 inches long, so that’s 51 million body lengths. Impressive, right? The amazing Rufous “only” travels 3,900 miles, but it’s just three inches long. That’s 80 million body lengths — all for a bird that weigh less than a nickel.
The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
On Sept. 17, a juvenile male Rufous Hummingbird dropped in to our Seattle garden to refuel on the salvias and fuchsias we grow for hummingbirds.
Rufous feeding on Salvia Purple & Bloom, and looking great while he does it.
Rufous have a rep as being aggressive and territorial even on feeding stops, which our young tough proved. When not tanking up or taking cover during his three days here, he fenced with at least three resident Anna’s Hummingbirds, permitting none to come near his fuchsias or his hidey hole in the bamboo next to them. While perching near a sugar-water feeder, he harassed a Black-capped Chickadee as it bathed six feet beneath him. The Black-cap was no threat to him, but hey, why not practice being a bully?
We last heard him at 9:30 a.m. on the 20th. By afternoon, an Anna’s fed contentedly on the fuchsias, so we knew Mr. Rufous definitely was on his way.
Our visitor on Sept. 19, his last full day here.
Maybe 10 years ago, typically four Rufous females stayed in our garden through the summer. They dominated the resident Anna’s. (We could hear them shouting, “sugar water wusses!”) The Rufous fought so furiously that one broke her “sword.” A friend said not to worry, she’d seen that frequently while birding in Costa Rica. She was right. We recognized that feisty female by the knob where the break had healed.
In years since, Rufous have been scarce here. Two years ago, a female stayed here all summer, in the same place this juvenile hung out. And the juvenile in the lead photo stayed several days. But last year we had only occasional visits by females and juveniles. Unfortunately, that’s a broader trend. Rufous are in trouble. They’re declining by 2 percent per year, and are listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as “near threatened.” This makes our visitor a special bird.
Rufous begin their southbound migration, from breeding grounds in Alaska and the Northwest, around June 21, and end around Oct. 19. They gain as much as 72 percent of their body weight ahead, and time their departure according to weather patterns and floral phenology. An Oregon State University study reported in in 2020 that those southbound routes vary by gender and age. It was based on 15 years’ worth of fall migration banding data involving nearly 30,000 hummingbird captures at more than 450 locations. Study participants learned that males, who depart first, fly along the Rocky Mountains, feeding on insects and flowers in alpine meadows. Females leave a weeks later, choosing a path roughly in the middle of the males and juveniles, who fly across California and leave last.
This timing jibes with occurrences in our Seattle garden. Mr. WordsandBirds saw a male briefly sometime in July, when I was in SoCal, and we both saw a female, who arrived on Aug. 18 and stayed three days.
Our male juvenile was unusually late. According to eBird, the relative abundance of Rufous near Seattle the week he was here is 0.00.
Hummingbirds migrate during the day, alone, and Rufous rove the most of any hummingbird. Fall and winter vagrants have been reported in the Southeast and even the Northeast. “No other western hummingbird is known to wander to this extent,” Birds of the World says. I would love to know how much distance they cover per leg, but what we know comes from banding records.
Here are more photos of Rufous hummers in our garden over the years. You may recognize this one:
My avatar. Fighting with the finial on our bird-feeder pole.
Surveying the salvia garden from a perch on a dwarf Blue Spruce, 2014
Recovering from a brisk meeting with window glass. This juvenile was back at it within 10 minutes.
A Rufous female dines on a Salvia ‘Neurepia’ blossom.
Now It's Your Turn. What have you noted happening in your area or travels? As usual, please post your observations as well as their general location in the comments.
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