Female claims first spot of returning Rofous hummingbirds

Her feistiness pegged her as a likely rufous hummingbird, even before I saw her cinnamon-tinged tail feathers. I’d been anticipating a few early migrants of her species since the beginning of July and was beginning to wonder when they might appear. Although females occasionally precede their more spectacularly colored male counterparts, they more typically follow them by a week or two, with both genders and many immature birds descending on the borderlands in large numbers from late July through August.

These little dynamos are among the longest distance travelers on the planet, logging up to 2000 miles – twice a year – from their wintering grounds in southwestern Mexico to their breeding grounds in the Pacific Northwest and then back again in late summer. When they arrive here in southern New Mexico, they are roughly halfway along their journey.

With sufficient energy reserves, these intrepid travelers are able to cover a few hundred miles in one flight – but when they arrive at a stopover point, they’re apt to be running on empty and need to refuel immediately. That likely explains their feisty nature, as they attempt to dominate other hummers where there are good feeding opportunities.

Their usual southbound track takes them down the Southern Rockies, which historically have offered plenty of refueling opportunities along the way. Thanks to summer monsoon rains, high mountain meadows can transform into flowering nectar bars, providing virtually unlimited sustenance to the migrating birds. In the past, occasional wildfires or droughts certainly occurred, affecting the floral resources of locally impacted habitats and causing the birds to seek better conditions elsewhere. But with climate change, our droughts are much more severe and widespread and the wildfires more numerous and often catastrophic, so there’s not the insurance that there used to be of plenty of neighboring lush habitat.

Although our gardens and feeders can’t entirely make up for dire conditions in nearby natural areas, they can provide a meaningful assist to migrating hummingbirds. Best of all are native or near-native summer-flowering plants like flame acanthus, rock penstemon, red yucca, and autumn sage that offer high-sucrose nectar and depend primarily on hummingbirds to pollinate them.

Well-maintained feeders can also be a boon, as long as they are kept clean. A solution of four parts water to one part table sugar, heated to mix well, closely approximates natural flower nectar and is the only safe solution to use; any extra can be kept in the refrigerator for a week or two. Remember, red on the feeder is fine but red coloring in the solution is not! Replace in hot weather every couple of days or if the solution becomes cloudy. A water source, whether birdbath, mister, or sprinkler, is also popular with the birds on hot days.

In addition to flower nectar, hummingbirds depend on prodigious quantities of small insects, especially gnats and aphids, so you’ll want to avoid using any chemical pesticides in the garden; even a minute amount of neonicotinoid can be fatal to a hummer. Similarly, cats need to be kept indoors or enclosed, as hummingbirds are extremely vulnerable to them. Luring birds with flowers and feeders to an unsafe yard is just not fair and may be deadly.

Our female rufous hummingbird, after only a day of skirmishing with the resident black-chinned hummingbirds, was joined by a striking adult male the very next day, so her rule over the yard was short-lived. They’ll be followed by many others of their species, along with migrating black-chinned, broad-tailed, and calliope hummingbirds over the next several weeks, so let’s try to keep them safe and cherish these magical moments.

Marcy Scott is a local birder, botanizer, and author of "Hummingbird Plants of the Southwest." Along with her husband, Jimmy Zabriskie, she operates Robledo Vista Nursery in the North Valley, www.robledovista.com, specializing in native and adapted plants for birds and wildlife habitat. She can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Female claims first spot of returning Rofous hummingbirds