A tiny winter visitor
t was just about dark on Halloween night and my dog Red and I were walking. Suddenly there was a breeze on my face as if someone were blowing on it, and a hummingbird was floating just in front of my nose. Eighty wing beats per second sent a draft across my cheeks. With serious black eyes it studied me. Then it descended and hovered in front of Red before darting away at top speed. The bird was barely the length of my shortest finger. Its curled feet could easily land squarely on a match head.
Later, standing on the patio, I heard several abrupt squeaks and a threatening buzz. The hummingbird was there looking me in the eye again and arcing from side to side with its tail spread.
Hummingbirds are tiny — diminutive unto disbelief. At an average of four grams, seven ruby-throated hummingbirds could be mailed anywhere in North America for the price of one Forever stamp. Their tiny bodies and long slender bills and the distinctive blur and hum of their wings set them apart from other birds. But the hummingbird trait that draws us most to them is that when approached, they don’t withdraw from us. Other birds fear humans, but hummingbirds are different. Easily attracted to feeders filled with sugar water, they take advantage of our kindness and repay us with hours of entertainment. Males have iridescent feathers and brightly colored throat patches. They perform flashy courtship and territorial displays. Females and immature birds have plainer plumages but just as much attitude as adult males.
Hummingbird habitats range from tropical rain forests to mountain meadows to deserts. They are found only in the Americas, with the greatest number of species in the tropics. In North America, the greatest diversity of hummingbird species is found in the mountains of southeast Arizona where birders travel the hummingbird circuit from Sycamore Canyon STANLEY TATE Gary Carter Rome to Portal to Santa Rita. The ruby-throated hummingbird is the only species that lives in Georgia.
It is the next day — Nov. 1, 2005 — and the bird is at the feeder. It has buffy-orange flanks and a green back — not a ruby-throat.
After studying the books for a couple of days we decided it must be an immature Rufous hummingbird that had strayed almost 2,000 miles from its winter range in Arizona and northern Mexico. We reported the bird to Georgia Hummers and a volunteer, Fred, came to catch and band it. He caught it, identified it, weighed it, took a picture, pulled a tail feather for DNA testing and put a band on one leg. During the process we felt the bird’s heart beat — at probably 1,250 beats per minute. Touching it made our fingertips tingle.
Our visitor was a three gram immature male Rufous hummingbird. He stayed with us from November to mid-March, eating at the feeder, catching insects on the wing, and chasing the mockingbirds out of the backyard. We called him Little Fred.
Every year some migrating birds of all species end up far from their intended destinations. Little Fred was one of these. Some birds even return to these wrong places year after year.
In February Little Fred’s chest and flanks became a bright buffy-orange and his back became more rufous than green. He began to disappear for a day or two at a time in early March. He left on March 15, 2006.
We look for him every fall but he hasn’t returned.