Keep the peepers peeled
“I have also had the experience of feeling the air from their wings when they have approached so close to check something out about my person. That usually occurs when I am wearing something red that they mistook for a nectar source,” she said.
Bridge, a Madison resident and part-time speech pathologist, volunteers for her hummingbird avocation. In 2015, she began the nonprofit Western Great Lakes Hummingbird Project, a labor of love, according to Bridge. The project is dedicated to the research and understanding of hummingbirds in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula; it is currently funded entirely by Bridge and her spouse, Peter.
An active birder since 1990, Bridge describes herself as a scientist and naturalist at heart with a background in bird banding. She is formally trained as a master permitted hummingbird bander.
In a single breeding season in Wisconsin during June, July and August, she can band up to 600 hummingbirds, sometimes 150 in a single day.
“Hummingbirds have an incredibly fast heart rate, which you can palpate while in your hand,” she said. “They are somewhat delicate to handle, given their small stature.”
Right about now, many Midwesterners are keeping their peepers peeled for the spring return of hummingbirds, even tracking sightings online.
Vicki McKenna is one Wisconsin birder eagerly awaiting the reappearance of her backyard friends.
“I love all my spring migration birds, but it’s the hummingbirds I love the most.” said McKenna, a Jefferson County resident and radio host who is on WISN-AM (1130) from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays. “I put multiple feeders out every year, but I have also planted bee balm, trumpet vines, honeysuckle and other assorted flowers to attract the hummingbirds and pollinators.”
Flowers such as bee balm, honeysuckle and trumpet vine have bell-shaped or tubular flowers that appeal to hummingbirds.
She hangs her hummingbird feeders from arbors and hooks, recommending inexpensive feeders with moats to help deter ants and wasps. “I hang my hummingbird feeders near my oriole feeders because the hummingbirds will also feed on the oranges and jelly” put out for the orioles.
McKenna also makes her own nectar, “since it’s so easy to do — and other birders agree it’s better for the hummingbirds,” she said. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology recommends a quarter cup of sugar dissolved in a cup of water, or up to one-third cup of sugar for each cup of water only during cold, rainy stretches.
Right now, McKenna is following their migration north on the Hummingbird Tracker app on her phone.
“I find it to be quite accurate. About two to three weeks before the birds are expected to break the Illinois-Wisconsin border, I put out my feeders,” she said.
Normally, hummingbirds begin to appear in Wisconsin sometime in April. Come May, she will add “abundant” hanging baskets with annuals of petunias and million bells, or calibrachoa.
Hummingbirds remind McKenna to notice
the small things in life.
“I’m awed by this tiny gift from God,” she said. “To see them hover with such deceptive ease is like watching a delicate flower suspended in midair. They get so close sometimes, it’s as if they actually trust me. I totally lose track of time watching them.”
Urban yards important
Many generic listings of flowers that attract hummingbirds can be found online and elsewhere, but choose plants carefully and consider your locale.
For example, trumpet vine, red cardinal flower, salvia, rhododendron, columbine, butterfly bush, lupine, bleeding hearts, bee balm and petunia are all hummingbird magnets, according to hummingbirdsplus.org.
Be aware, however, that some attention-grabbing flowers and shrubs touted as “must-have” hummingbird plants might be invasive — such as some honeysuckles. Instead consider native shrubs, such as New Jersey tea.
Also beware that some hummingbird flowers are available in many forms — both true native and modern cultivar or hybrids, such as bee balm. The Wisconsin native bee balm is wild bergamot, or
which is lavendercolored, not red, according to Prairie Nursery in Westfield.
Hybrids may have altered scents, flower shapes and colors that pollinators do not recognize or otherwise impede their access to nectar. Native plants also attract numerous insects that hummingbirds and their babies need as important fuel sources.
To makes things easy for hummingbird lovers, prairienursery.com sells planned 32-plant hummingbird gardens for moist, medium or dry soil types at $139. Full sun is best for the hummingbird gardens.
Native plant varieties in the gardens include smooth penstemon, New Jersey tea, prairie blazing star, butterfly weed, sky blue aster, wild petunia, royal catchfly, prairie dropseed, bergamot and many others. The gardens are designed by Prairie Nursery to offer season-long blooms that are preferred by hummingbirds.
Bird bander Bridge also recommended going native with trees, shrubs and flowering plants that offer food, cover and perches for hummingbirds. For example, she planted Washington hawthorn trees in her yard that hummingbirds seem to favor for perches. She’s also discovered that small zip-ties she attaches atop her hooks that hold hanging baskets are a frequent perching site for hummingbirds.
Gardening organically will encourage beneficial insects that are critical protein sources for hummingbirds, Bridge said. Keep cats indoors and hang feeders at least 4 feet off the ground to help thwart cats and other predators.
Bridge warned that nectar feeders require upkeep. Use simple nectar without dyes or additives.
“The safety of dyes and other additives in hummingbird nectar has not been thoroughly researched,” she cautioned in an email. “Only hang out a feeder if you are willing to adequately clean your feeder every three days (sooner in hot weather, later in cold). Moldy or cloudy nectar can cause serious illness or death to hummingbirds.”
She also noted that evergreen trees are important as they provide cover and insects among the needles that hummingbirds especially rely on when the weather turns colder.
And remember to provide water; a drip or misting water feature is ideal because it will, once again, attract those beneficial insects.
Hummingbirds in winter?
Only one species of hummingbird nests in Wisconsin: the ruby-throated hummingbird, which has iridescent green and white feathers, according to Bridge. It is the smallest bird in the state.
Males will have the full red gorget (throat patch) and are the first to migrate south by the end of August. The females and first-year hatchlings will hang around longer in Wisconsin. Surprisingly, a few will even overwinter here.
Although most will be gone by midOctober, late fall is the time when rare Western or winter hummingbirds may appear. Bridge calls them vagrants.
“With at least 50 records to date, the rufous hummingbird is by far Wisconsin’s second most common species of hummingbird and the most common of the Western/winter species that occur in the state,” Bridge said.
Another species, Anna’s hummingbirds, also might show up.
Even rarer are the Allen’s hummingbirds. Bridge banded the first documented Allen’s hummingbird in Wisconsin, in New Glarus, on Dec. 17.
These vagrant hummingbirds are considered to have adapted to cold weather and need no rescuing, she said. In other words, be thrilled but not alarmed if you see a hummingbird in winter even though it seems out of season.
Bridge believes Western species might be increasing in Wisconsin, with rufous hummingbirds documented in the state back to 1980. Last year, however, she banded only one Allen’s hummingbird and one Anna’s hummingbird, so data is incomplete.
On the East Coast, where heavier research is conducted, the numbers of vagrant Western hummingbirds are definitely up.
In Wisconsin, much is unknown about hummingbirds, such as their population in the state, according to Bridge. Any sightings of rare Western hummingbirds can be reported to ebird.org, which is a free online tool from Cornell University for recording bird observations, she said.
“Despite the ruby-throated hummingbird being widely distributed and quite common, much is still lacking in our understanding of this species’ breeding ecology, migration and molt,” Bridge said.
Anecdotally, she said the numbers of ruby-throated have remained stable in the areas she visits but cautions that her research is relatively young. Other experts have agreed that the numbers are not declining in the area, she said.
“The stability of ruby-throated hummingbirds has likely been maintained due to the adaptability of this species to urban yards,” Bridge said. Increased popularity in birding overall, along with better outreach and education efforts through the internet, also appears to have boosted the interest in attracting and feeding hummingbirds.
Jennifer Rude Klett is a Wisconsin freelance writer of history, food, and Midwestern life. Contact her at jrudeklett.com.
For more information on the Western Great Lakes Hummingbird Project, see westerngreatlakeshummingbirds.org.