In those ten years, I've captured in nets or pull-string traps a total of 1,190 hummers and have placed on their legs aluminum bands supplied by the U.S. I've been studying ruby-throats-the only breeding hummingbird in the eastern U.S.-since 1984. But they do it, migrating from as far north as New England and southern Canada down to Central America for every winter season.Īs I conduct field research on Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Archilochus colubris, at Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History near York, South Carolina, I never cease to wonder how these little balls of fluff can survive even the difficulty of day-to-day existence at my old farmstead-much less how they avoid the perils of long-distance migration. "Where have these birds been?" "Where are they going?" "How do they find their way?" "How do they store enough energy for long trips?" And ultimately, "Why do they do it?"įor me, such questions arise especially when I ponder hummingbirds, those tiniest of birds that appear far too fragile to fly south from North America each autumn and return the following year. Throughout the ages, bird migration has raised many questions. Human observers have always been amazed by cyclic patterns in their surroundings-phases of the moon, the four seasons, the ebb and flow of the tides-but perhaps none has piqued the imagination as much as the unfailing arrival of birds in spring and their equally predictable departure each fall. If one of nature's greatest mysteries is how and why birds migrate, then surely the seasonal travels of hummingbirds is among the most incredible occurrences in the natural world.
(Note: The draft below was submitted to WildBird magazine the article that actually appeared in print may have been edited.)
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