This minuscule ring weighs about 0.6-0.7 milligrams-less than one-thousandth of a gram-roughly equivalent to a small wristwatch or a gold signet ring on an adult human’s finger. The photo also reveals a glint of metal on the bird’s left leg, a thin strip of aluminum we know from experience has a letter and five digits inscribed thereon. Those are tiny rain droplets on his crown.) Check out that red gorget!

(We hope you can view this image on something other than a cell phone for details. The answer is a qualified 'yes.' We offer as evidence the photo below taken on Earth Day 2019 (22 April) of an adult male Ruby-throated Hummingbird perched on a saucer-style feeder just outside our office window at Hilton Pond Center. When people find out we study hummingbirds by capturing them and putting metal bands on their legs, a frequently heard question is whether it’s possible to see a band on a hummingbird at a feeder. A much older female RTHU entered a trap on 26 April, having been caught as an adult in June 2016 and recaptured each year since-making her an after-4th-year individual in at least her fifth year of existence! She's an excellent example of site fidelity.Īll text, maps, charts & photos © Hilton Pond Center

On 17 April we recaptured our first white-throated female of the season (see photo below, and note the band) she was already an adult when we banded her locally last June. That said, there HAVE been a few BANDED Ruby-throated Hummingbirds frequenting the Center's feeders in 2019, the first being a male recaptured on 2 April we banded him here last August as a recent fledgling.

(By August we'll have deployed a couple dozen feeders to meet the needs of an ever-larger hungry hummer horde.) This mid-March feeder-hanging strategy is based on our having captured our first unbanded RTHU on 27 March in four different years, but through 28 April this year-a full month after that date-we have yet to catch or even see an unbanded RTHU. Patrick's Day, anticipating the first ruby-throats sometime during the last week in March. As always, we hung our first complement of eight feeders on St. So far as Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (RTHU) are concerned, spring has sprung VERY slowly-one of the slowest starts in our 36 years of hummer research at Hilton Pond Center.

Subscribe for free to our award-winning nature newsletter

The trap by indigo wren