Buff-bellied Hummingbird band #R53318 and the “Gang of 30″
BUFH R53318 and the gang of 30
Many of you know our team of banders manages the Land of Ortego - Zalk banding station near Raisin, Victoria County, TX.
Nancy Newfield captured a Buff-bellied Hummingbird (band # R53318) last week (2/14/07) in New Orleans, LA, that I originally banded on 19 May of 2002. This provided me an opportunity to re-visit the day of banding and check on what happened to the birds encountered on that day.
First, we run a banding station and band all birds captured with mist-nets; not just hummers. 19 May 2002 was an extraordinary day.
| Species | Banded | Recaptured |
|---|---|---|
| Snowy Egret | 1 | 0 |
| Inca Dove | 1 | 0 |
| Buff-bellied Hummingbird | 16 | 14 |
| Ruby-throated Hummingbird | 35 | 2 |
| Yellow-bellied Flycatcher | 1 | 0 |
| White-eyed Vireo | 1 | 1 |
| Blue Jay | 1 | 0 |
| E. Tufted Titmouse | 2 | 0 |
| Carolina Chickadee | 1 | 0 |
| Carolina Wren | 4 | 0 |
| Am. Redstart | 1 | 0 |
| Mourning Warbler | 4 | 0 |
| Com. Yellowthroat | 2 | 0 |
| N. Cardinal | 3 | 11 |
| House Sparrow | 3 | 0 |
15 species, 76 newly banded and 28 recaptured.
Buff-bellied Hummingbirds were especially abundant this day as they stage at the Land of OZ banding station feeding on many hummingbird feeders while waiting for the Turk’s-caps to bloom in the area so they can disperse throughout their breeding grounds.
The “Gang of 30″ Buff-bellied caught on this day had an interesting history. Buff-bellies can typically be described as using the banding station in 4 primary styles: 1 = winter resident, 2 = seasonal migrant, 3 = summer resident, 4 = transient [The bird is presumed to be just a transient if we only caught it once]. Each BUFH can be within either of these 4 categories during May.
Of the 30 BUFHs, 9 were originally captured prior to 2002. Each of these birds had been captured at the Land of OZ from 3 to 29 times during their history with us. They visited us from 1 to 5 years. 8 were males and 5 of these were winter residents and 3 spring & fall migrants. The lone historic female was a spring and fall migrant. Within this group of returning males was a very special spring and fall migrant male that traveled to Lafayette each winter and spent the winter with Dave Patton who bands hummingbirds in Louisiana. He hosted this bird for two winters and I caught it before and after it traveled to Louisiana each winter. We lost tract of the bird for one year when the habitat of its winter home was modified. It came back to Raisin for another spring and fall after the one year of absence.
Of the 21 BUFHs that were originally caught during the spring of 2002:
Eight (transients?) were only observed during the 1st day of capture and these were all males. This is the category of the bird Nancy Newfield captured in New Orleans last week. It was only handed once at Raisin. The rest of the hummers were caught multiple times. Two of the 4 females banded multiple times were spring and fall migrants, 1 was a summer resident and 1 was a winter resident. Five of the males ended up being spring and fall migrants, 1 summered, and 1 wintered with us for 5 seasons and was captured 31 times.
This “Gang of 30″ has quite a resume and the information we gather through banding helps us learn more about the dynamics of the life history of the species in which we study. Its pretty spectacular that two of the birds we hosted on that day were later caught in Lousiana by other banders.
Brent Ortego
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