Who's On First

Each spring we watch for reports of migrating hummingbirds. There are several migration websites that show up to date maps of each species. I like ebird.org. If you choose Species Maps and put in the Date: March-May, and Current Year, you will see locations of all reported birds.

Calliopes follow the Cascade Mountains north and are already showing up in north Idaho and BC, Canada. Broad-tailed Hummingbirds head up through the Rockies. We are at the northern end of their range. And Black-chinned sightings currently form a broad band across the Southwest into Texas. It is always interesting to track the earliest Rufous as they blast their way up the Pacific coast as far as Alaska.

We have no hummingbirds to report, as of today. Our earliest bird, a male Broad-tailed showed up on April 8 and again April 7 two years running. More typically, our birds show up at the ranch around April 23-27. So for now I’m keeping my fingers crossed and my feeders clean.