Summer 2006

Table of Contents

A hummingbird trap.

How do you tag a hummingbird? Very carefully!

With toothpick-like legs, hummingbirds are not easily banded.

But WDFW wildlife biologist Russell Link is up to the task as he assists volunteers from Victoria, British Columbia this summer in a study to learn more about the tiny birds on their breeding grounds.

In the initial effort, 48 Rufous hummingbirds were trapped and banded on Whidbey Island. When the birds are re-captured later this year and in subsequent years, it will help determine several things that scientists have questions about:

• the length of time from first to last egg laying;
• what percentage of females double brood;
• the amount of time birds remain in an area;
• how much they are tied to feeders;
• what part of the northward migration gives us our breeding population; and
• which birds pass through to head further north.

Stay tuned for results in future editions of “Crossing Paths.”

Weighing and measuring a hummingbird.