05-23-16 Hummingbird Field Note

05-23-16 Hummingbird Field Note

May 23, 2016

Eric Rasmussen shares an account of the bird crew's initial 2016 Hummingbird banding research efforts.

Bird Field Note 5/15/16 Hummingbird Banding Update Eric Rasmussen

Hummingbird banding began on April 26th at the Clubhouse Floodplain. On the 27th, we banded at our second site, Baldy Mountain. Each banding session is five hours and occurs every other week. Eric holds the first male Calliope banded at MPG (below).

The first two weeks (four banding days) were a success. We caught 13 Calliope’s, and one male Rufous. We did not recapture any birds between sessions, so we assume most of these birds are migrants. We expect to start capturing local breeders in the coming weeks, including Black-chinned Hummingbirds.