Rare bird winters over in Harwich Port

[Donna]

HARWICH PORT — In the summer, Christine Omar loves to watch the bright, jeweled ruby-throated hummingbirds that hover, sipping sugar water from the feeder by her side door. By mid-September, they are gone, back to the tropics of Mexico and Central America for the winter.

But Omar leaves the feeder up a little longer in case a stray comes by.

On Oct. 1, one did. But this wasn't a procrastinating ruby-throated but rather something exceedingly rare on Cape Cod: an Allen's hummingbird. And the tiny bird has been coming back day after day, defying sub-zero windchill, high winds, and two major winter snowstorms.

Only three have ever been spotted in Massachusetts and this is the longest any have stayed and survived.

"It's quite a feat to survive there," said David Bonter, an ornithologist at Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University in New York.

Some birds have a broken compass that sends them off in the wrong direction when they migrate, he explained. They're known as "vagrants," and they pile up along the East Coast in the summer months, unwilling to challenge the Atlantic Ocean.

Usually, they end up in the Southeastern states. Cape Cod is way off course, Bonter said, especially for Allen's hummingbirds, which spend most of the year along the California coast. They winter in south central Mexico, where it averages 70 to 80 degrees, and are rarely found east of the Rockies.

As holidays came and went, Omar expected the bird would leave. But he was there for Halloween, then Thanksgiving. When a pre-Christmas storm dumped more than a foot of snow in her yard, and the winds howled more than 50 miles per hour, she saw it fly to the feeder, besting the winds and snow.

"It is an incredibly strong flier," said Bonter.

Around 2 inches long, weighing about as much as a penny, hummingbirds are tough, and can fly hundreds of miles without rest. But the price for beating their wings at a blurring 50 or more beats per second is the requirement for constant fuel. In summer, they visit more than a thousand flowers a day for nectar and insects.

At this point, Omar's guest is completely dependent on her feeder and visits it every five to 10 minutes from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

"We're not going anywhere," Omar said. "At this point, I couldn't leave."

During the storms, Omar went out every half hour to brush snow off the feeder. She panicked one day when she broke the only feeder, and sent her husband, Richard, out to buy more. Two now hang inside as back-ups should the feeder water freeze up.

"At night, I wonder where he actually is and how he keeps warm by himself," she said. Local birders, some of whom recently trapped and banded the tiny bird, believe he may be finding refuge in an old juniper tree in her yard.

Hummingbirds are able to survive colder weather by slowing their body temperatures and metabolic rates, and going into a deep sleep that uses little energy.

Bonter believes there is just a slim chance the bird can survive the winter, but if he lasts until March, he'll be OK, he said.

Ironically, vagrants don't learn their lesson, he said. They'll return to the same spot the next year, no matter how bad the previous winter.

"They have a very high fidelity to that site," he said.

But even if this one doesn't return to her feeder one day this winter, Omar won't think the worst. "I would assume he's moved on to his next trip," she said.

[Donna]

Subject: Allen's Hummingbird update
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:16:20 -0500

I just received a call from Christine Omar, the homeowner hosting the
Allen's Hummingbird in Harwich.  As Tom Prince has reported (through
Barbara Volkle), the hummingbird was discovered to be in distress
this morning.  It turned out that some of the sugar water from the
feeder had frozen onto one wing and it apparently could not
fly.  Fortunately, this happened while it was at the feeder,
otherwise it likely would have expired by now.  The bird was brought
inside, then taken to Wild Care in Orleans where it is currently
being treated.  What eventually will happen to it has yet to be
determined, but for the time being at least, it is not viewable.  I
will post an update as more info becomes available.

Poor thing...hope it's OK  Unbelievable weather the US is having.

[Bird Crazy]

I hope it will be okay 

[Donna]

Subject: Allen's Hummingbird update
From: Blair Nikula
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:19:43 -0500

I learned today that, sadly - but not surprisingly, the Harwich
Allen's Hummingbird has died. Apparently the bird actually died
about a week ago, but for some mysterious reason the death has been
shrouded in secrecy.

Blair Nikula

So sad. 

[Donna]

A rare hummingbird that had been sustained well into winter by the sugar water in a feeder at a Harwich home, has died.

Dr. Tom French, MassWildlife assistant director for natural heritage and endangered species, said the Allen's hummingbird, a type that has only been seen in Massachusetts three times, died Jan. 19.

New England Hummingbirds: www.nehummers.com

Christine Omar thought the day might come when the tiny hummingbird, which had been visiting the feeder outside her sunroom since October, just wouldn't show.

On Jan. 10, she assumed the worst when the bird didn't appear for three hours in the morning. It had come to the feeder every day, every few minutes, sunup to sundown, for months, sometimes through horrendous winter storms.

"I thought it had died. It was a really cold morning," Omar said yesterday.

Then, it suddenly materialized, sipping sugar water from the plastic red bell of one of the fake flowers on the feeder.

Just as suddenly, one of its wings got some sugar water on it, froze, and the bird dropped from the feeder onto the wood deck.

t was taken to Wild Care in Eastham, where clinic director Lela Larned and her staff tried to bring it back to health. But their best efforts were not enough.

"There was nothing done wrong here. These birds are hard to keep alive in captivity," French said. All three of the Allen's hummingbirds that have been seen in the state died in New England winter weather.

However, some populations of the birds are tough enough for milder winters.

Although the Southern California population of Allen's hummingbirds doesn't migrate at all, other groups leave Baja, Mexico, in February to spend the summer in Oregon.

"They are pretty winter-hardy birds," French said. Each year, more seem to come to the East Coast, particularly to southeastern states such as Georgia and Florida.

These wayward souls are not lost, said French. Possibly, they are trying out a different locale, part of Nature's way of ensuring the continuation of the species if their preferred destination becomes inhospitable.

Capturing a hummingbird and transporting it to a more hospitable climate is not the best course, he said. The birds learn their migration route by flying it, and would be confused as to how to get back to California. Instead, it's best to feed them enough to increase body fat, then release them to fly back on their own.

And, French recommended taking hummingbird feeders down in October to encourage them to move on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_sBS7m3Qlo&feature=player_embedded