We begin the New Year with an unsolved and perhaps unsolvable mystery: hummingbirds overwintering in the Southeast. Is this a fairly recent phenomenon? Is it a sign of climate change? Or have they been here in winter all along and we just failed to notice?
Conventional wisdom seems to dictate that hummingbirds are far too dainty and nectar dependent to ever survive our cold days and nights, and supposedly, all spend their winters in the milder climes of Central and South America. Yet, many hummingbird species that nest in the west having been observed in recent years in the Southeast in winter. Species like the rufous, calliope, black-chinned, buff-bellied, Anna's, Allen's, Costa's and broad-billed have been reported.
The first rufous hummingbird east of the Mississippi River was collected in 1904, but since that time, any stray winter hummer was simply dismissed as a poor lost westerner, doomed to die. But, just perhaps, this isn't so. Westerner, yes; doomed to die, no. Wintertime hummers are not here in great numbers, but for some reason, a small number do migrate not south but southeast.
And even our own ruby-throated hummingbirds do not all leave; they are also being seen in chilly places. Patty Ford and I tallied a lone female ruby-throat visiting a feeder in South Knoxville near the lake in January 2009 during the Christmas Bird Count. We had been alerted by local bird bander Mark Armstrong who had already managed to catch and band her.
And in recent years, both calliope and rufous hummingbirds have been seen and banded in my area in winter.
Again: Is this a recent phenomenon? Or have they been here in winter all along?
For more information about hummingbirds in winter visit: National Wildlife Federation.
- Photo of rufous hummingbird by Ryan Bushby
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