Hummingbirds
Nature's jewels, our lovely and smallest feathered friends. We are blessed with a variety of these interesting little birds. From spring to fall the ruby-throated hummingbirds predominate. Breeding season begins in March when first the males, and then a couple of weeks later, the females return from their wintering grounds in South America. Female ruby-throats build a nest of plant down, spider webs and lichen on the branch of a small tree, usually near water. Usually 2 small eggs about the size of peas are laid in this walnut sized nest. Soon the tiny babies emerge. The mother feeds them plenty of protein in the form of small insects gleaned in flight and nectar from flowers. Fledglings leave the nest in June and are soon feeding from flowers on their own. Female ruby-throat hummingbirds down here will usually raise at least 2 broods during the breeding season. In late summer fall migration begins and by October all but a few stragglers have left the U.S. to travel south.

During fall migration some western hummingbird species begin to find their way to Southeast Louisiana. We begin to see Rufous, Allens, Broad-tailed, Calliope, Buff-bellied hummingbirds to mention a few. We are delighted when some individuals spend the winter in our habitat here along the Little Tchefuncte River.

Breeding Population of Ruby-throat Hummingbirds Linda Beall, who is permitted by the USGS to band hummingbirds, is conducting a study of the breeding habits of ruby-throat hummingbirds. Each week from the middle of March through the end of September she comes to our habitat to trap and band these little beauties. After a band is placed on the left leg, each bird is examined, measured, weighed and marked with the color of the week so that we can visually identify the ones that have already been captured. During fall migration, on a good year, there are so many hummers that we have to recruit extra help.		Ruby Throated Hummingbird Nest
Linda started banding Ruby-throated hummingbirds in our habitat in March, 2002 and has returned every year since. The 2005 banding ended at the end of August due to Hurricane Katrina. The 2006 banding study has revealed some interesting results. As a result of the large scale destruction of the breeding habitat the number of breeding Ruby-throated hummingbirds in 2006 was down from previous years.

Hummingbird Banding, Setting the Trap	Adult Female Ruby-Throat 9/2006

Immature Male Rufous - 9/2000

Wintering Hummingbirds The first banding session in our Tchefuncte Habitat took place in September, 2000. Dave Patton and Linda Beall set up their traps and banded an immature male Rufous. He spent the fall and winter with us and had molted into his beautiful adult plumage before he left in March. We think he returned in October of 2001, but was frightened away by the house rennovation before we could trap it to confirm its identity.

In January, 2002, Linda banded a female Calliope which had been in our yard since December, 2001. Normally Calliope hummingbirds have more shy temperments, but this one was fiesty, more like a Rufous. In November, 2002 a female rufous was banded. Most of her tail feathers were missing, but they grew back while she was here. By January, 2003 we had a male and a female rufous hummingbird wintering in our yard.	Female Calliope January 2002
Immature Male Ruby-Throat 12/2004	During the winter of 2003-04 we hosted no wintering hummingbirds, but 2 of the rufous hummingbirds that were banded here were recaptured elsewhere; one in Abita Springs, LA and one in Boothville, LA which is on the coast near Venice, LA. At first it looked like we were going to be "hummerless" again in the winter of 2004 , but things started looking up with the arrival of a wintering immature male ruby-throat on December 7.
Female Black-chinned 1/12/2005	Then on January 12, 2005 an adult female black-chinned hummingbird arrived and spent the rest of the winter here, but she would come and go. She had an unusual white feather in one of the primary coverts. Click here or on the photo to see more pictures of the banding session. For more information about wintering hummingbird in Louisiana visit Linda Beall's site.
January 2, 2006 we rang the new year in with the arrival of an adult female Rufous hummingbird. She spent the winter feeding on insects and drinking nectar from the hummingbird plants that were still blooming due to the mild winter. She did not migrate until sometime in early April.	Adult Female Rufous - January, 2006
Immature Female Rufous - August, 2006	On August 29, 2006, Linda Beall caught and banded our first western species of the 2006 winter hummingbird season. This is a very young and colorful immature female rufous. It stayed for about ten days, then continued on its migration. Most of the time the western species that come in August don't stay very long.

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