where are the female hummingbirds?
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marlene johnston
Jun 3, 2024, 11:25:08 AMJun 3
to WestKootenayBirds
Hi all,
I have been expecting the influx of female rufous hummingbirds for the past couple weeks and they have not arrived. We have a few males around, and a pair of Black-chinned but only 1 or 2 female Rufous. There is the odd male doing its dive but not a lot of courtship behaviour. Normally between Mother’s Day and the end of May a swarm of females (10-20) will arrive at the feeders late afternoon/early evening and there will be a few days of frenzied activity and then the hummers disperse. Have the females bypassed Lardeau or have they been delayed, or worse? Has anyone else noticed an absence or a surplus? It would be nice to know they are somewhere and okay.
marlene at lardeau
I have been expecting the influx of female rufous hummingbirds for the past couple weeks and they have not arrived. We have a few males around, and a pair of Black-chinned but only 1 or 2 female Rufous. There is the odd male doing its dive but not a lot of courtship behaviour. Normally between Mother’s Day and the end of May a swarm of females (10-20) will arrive at the feeders late afternoon/early evening and there will be a few days of frenzied activity and then the hummers disperse. Have the females bypassed Lardeau or have they been delayed, or worse? Has anyone else noticed an absence or a surplus? It would be nice to know they are somewhere and okay.
marlene at lardeau
Sachi Snively
Jun 3, 2024, 11:36:20 AMJun 3
to marlene johnston, WestKootenayBirds
Anecdotally I have far less Rufous, both male and female at my place in QB. Normally I only get sneak peaks of Black-chinned as the Rufous dominate and chase both male and female alike away with fervour. However this year I have had the odd Rufous with the Black-chinned daily and unmolested as it uses the best perches that usually the rufous dominated.
I have more feeders up and they are spread out but it does appear that there are far fewer.
Could be that they were late, or early? Or problems with over winter survival, migration in either direction or that last year had lower reproductive output.
Sachi
> On Jun 3, 2024, at 8:25 AM, marlene johnston <mac...@lardeauvalley.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
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I have more feeders up and they are spread out but it does appear that there are far fewer.
Could be that they were late, or early? Or problems with over winter survival, migration in either direction or that last year had lower reproductive output.
Sachi
> On Jun 3, 2024, at 8:25 AM, marlene johnston <mac...@lardeauvalley.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I have been expecting the influx of female rufous hummingbirds for the past couple weeks and they have not arrived. We have a few males around, and a pair of Black-chinned but only 1 or 2 female Rufous. There is the odd male doing its dive but not a lot of courtship behaviour. Normally between Mother’s Day and the end of May a swarm of females (10-20) will arrive at the feeders late afternoon/early evening and there will be a few days of frenzied activity and then the hummers disperse. Have the females bypassed Lardeau or have they been delayed, or worse? Has anyone else noticed an absence or a surplus? It would be nice to know they are somewhere and okay.
>
> marlene at lardeau
>
>
> --
> I have been expecting the influx of female rufous hummingbirds for the past couple weeks and they have not arrived. We have a few males around, and a pair of Black-chinned but only 1 or 2 female Rufous. There is the odd male doing its dive but not a lot of courtship behaviour. Normally between Mother’s Day and the end of May a swarm of females (10-20) will arrive at the feeders late afternoon/early evening and there will be a few days of frenzied activity and then the hummers disperse. Have the females bypassed Lardeau or have they been delayed, or worse? Has anyone else noticed an absence or a surplus? It would be nice to know they are somewhere and okay.
>
> marlene at lardeau
>
>
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "West Kootenay Birds" group.
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Jakob Dulisse
Jun 3, 2024, 1:15:32 PMJun 3
to wkb...@googlegroups.com
At my mom's feeders at Goose Creek, there are lots of male black-chinned
and female rufous. No male rufous, female black-chinned or calliope
yet. Really strange.
Jakob
and female rufous. No male rufous, female black-chinned or calliope
yet. Really strange.
Jakob
Dean Self
Jun 3, 2024, 1:22:21 PMJun 3
to wkb...@googlegroups.com
At our feeders on the bank of the Columbia in Trail we have male and female Black-chinned and Calliopes but no Rufous hummers.
Dean
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Carolee Colter
Jun 3, 2024, 3:04:54 PMJun 3
to wkb...@googlegroups.com
Here in Nelson we've had fewer and fewer Rufous hummers with every passing year. About 10 years ago we'd have a male Rufous staking out our feeder and another staking out our neighbour's feeder, and then the two of them would fight the male and female Rufous and occasional Calliope that came into the yard. Around May 10 would be peak Rufous. Now we're lucky to see a single male or female Rufous just passing through. We had a Black-chinned male on Sunday. No Calliope yet.
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marlene johnston
Jun 4, 2024, 10:55:06 AMJun 4
to WestKootenayBirds
Thank you all for your interesting comments on observations. It doesn’t sound great. Does Birds Canada or ?? track this more closely?
marlene
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Gary Davidson
Jun 4, 2024, 12:27:44 PMJun 4
to WestKootenayBirds
I have been commenting on the same thing at my feeders here in Nakusp! For the first time ever, I have no dominant male Rufous at either of my feeders. I always have had 2, one a the back feeder and one at the side feeder. In both cases the male sits near the feeder much of the day and defends against all commers. This year, not the case. I did have a few males earlier in the season but none that stayed and defended. The only good thing about this, is that I have had a male and female Black-chinned coming to the feeders, not being harassed by a bully Rufous! That's quite rare for our region.
Gary
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James Turner
Jun 5, 2024, 10:16:48 AMJun 5
to Gary Davidson, WestKootenayBirds
No dominant, male, rufous here either! Almost all have been black-chinned visiting our feeder. I’ve only seen two calliope. 1M, 1F.
It would appear that the one, male Black chinned has claimed our feeder this year.
James Turner
On Jun 4, 2024, at 9:27 AM, 'Gary Davidson' via West Kootenay Birds <wkb...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
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Barbara Maytom
Jun 11, 2024, 1:46:02 PMJun 11
to Gary Davidson, WestKootenayBirds
Good news I hope.
For the past 3 days we have had both a male and female Rufous hanging around. I see, in postings in other parts of BC, that they are finally appearing too. Hopefully just late this year.
Barbara
On Jun 4, 2024, at 9:27 AM, 'Gary Davidson' via West Kootenay Birds <wkb...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
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bcbird...@gmail.com
Jun 14, 2024, 7:13:16 PMJun 14
to West Kootenay Birds
Yes it’s sad I remember reading a study last year that said Rufous Hummingbirds have declined by 70% since the 1960’s
Mel
James Turner
Jun 14, 2024, 10:23:52 PMJun 14
to bcbird...@gmail.com, West Kootenay Birds
Just this week I’ve seen multiple male rufous and quite a few female rufous, black chinned and calliope visit the feeders. Definitely late arrivals but lower numbers than usual.
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