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25, January 2005 The Closer Look
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View
our accompanying slideshow |
A number of hummingbirds winter in Texas, yet most hug the warm breezes (and lush vegetation) of the coast. Rufous, Allen’s, Broad-tailed, Calliope, Ruby-throated, Black-chinned, Anna’s, Buff-bellied, and Broad-billed are examples of hummingbirds that have been present along the Texas coast this winter (not to mention a Green-breasted Mango in McAllen). There are a number of locations along the Texas coast awash in hummingbirds in the winter season (try Freeport south to Brownsville). Only a few decades ago Texas birders believed the state to be generally without hummingbirds in the winter, but in recent years the profusion of feeders and feeder watchers has altered that view.
Except in Austin and the Hill Country. The Texas Hill Country is "white rocks and cedar trees", reminiscent of the tropics only in the proximity to the Gulf coast. Black-chinned and Ruby-throated both breed in the region, but in general birders here put their hummingbird feeders in mothballs in winter and wait for the return of their breeding birds. Since moving to Austin several years ago I have kept feeders active through the winter months, and I have been rewarded with, at best, one or two Rufous.
This winter, however, my fortunes have changed. One Rufous in October became a swarm of hummingbirds by New Years. With four feeders now active in the yard, there is never a waking moment without the sight or sound of a hummingbird. Sumita Prasad (Fermata’s Director of Birding) spent a couple of days in early January banding these hummers. Sumita trapped both a female Rufous (the original bird from October), as well as a female Broad-tailed. As I write there are at least three additional Rufous in the yard, and there could easily be several more zipping into the feeders when the opportunity arises.
The entertainment provided by a handful of hummingbirds at a few feeders is astounding, given the small amount of expense and labor involved. I am often surprised at how few nature lodges and interpretive centers have learned this fundimental lesson. Asa Wright Nature Centre in Trinidad is a splendid example of a facility that understands this basic fact. The most uninitiated wildlife viewer can sit on the veranda there and appreciate the dozens of bird species swarming the feeders. Hundreds of honeycreepers, tanagers, motmots, and bananaquits gravitate to the fruit and mash placed in the feeding troughs. Hummingbirds dice around the feeders placed under the eaves, and at night leaf-nosed bats use the same feeders as a surrogate source of nectar. How simple, and how effective.
Recreation is the pathway of choice for people who find their way to nature, and birding, in this sense, is an effective conduit. Yet, for the uninitiated birding loses its charm if one never sees a bird. I am not a believer in the Spartan approach to birding, and a well-managed feeding and water program is a splendid way to introduce the general public to the wonders of the natural world.
Ted Eubanks
24 Jan 2005
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