25-JUL - Banding Hummingbirds

Today we went with the Audubon society to the Perk Floyd residence south of Little Rock (Lakeside Country Club) to band hummingbirds. Perk has been banding hummers since 1988 and has banded over 7000 hummers. We first had to trap the hummers in a home built cage surrounding a hummingbird feeder. Next, Perk would reach in and remove the tiny hummer by hand. The next job was to check and see if the bird needed banding. Many of the birds have already been banded. However, these are also measured and compared to previous results. Below is picture of the Floyds banding a hummer.

After banding, the bird needs to be measured and weighed. First, the wings and tail are measured.
Next, the beak is measured. It was interesting that the females typically have longer beaks than the males -- to feed babies -- not to tweeter.
Finally, the hummers are put into a piece of stocking and weighed. Most of our birds weighed a little over 3 grams. For reference, 1 ounce is 28 grams. Put another way, you could mail about 8 birds with a single 42 cent stamp! That would be an interesting letter.
After measuring, it takes the hummers a few minutes to recover from the "trauma" of being captured. Here's Rosie holding a hummer before it flies away.

Here's an up close view of Bob's hummer relaxing in his hand. This is a girl hummer and it's simply "swooning". He could feel her little heart beating.