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RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD
BANDED At SPARTANBURG SC
(22 December 2003)

All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center

On 9 December 2003 Dr. Lyle Campbell of the University of South Carolina-Spartanburg E-mailed us that--beginning sometime in November--an apparent Rufous Hummingbird had been visiting a feeder several miles from campus at the home of Bob and Willaminta Hight. Lyle was the tipster in 2002 for another hummer in the Boiling Springs area that we subsequently caught and confirmed as a hatch-year male Rufous.

Unfortunately, the Hights were suffering from the flu during early and mid-December this year, so we temporarily deferred contacting them to set up a banding attempt. Eventually their health improved and we arranged to travel the 60 miles from our home base in York SC to Spartanburg (Spartanburg County) on the morning of 22 December, with the hope of verifying the species of the Hights' winter hummingbird.

We departed Hilton Pond Center an hour before dawn on the 22nd and arrived at the Hight residence in semi-darkness just at 7 a.m. We quickly moved the Hights' feeder into our portable hummingbird trap, re-hung it outside back window, and stepped inside where it was considerably warmer.

Within 20 minutes a hummingbird appeared, checked out the trap, entered, and was caught as we pushed the button on our remote mechanism. A rusty back and tail left no doubt that the Hights had been hosting a juvenile male Rufous Hummingbird, Selasphorus rufus, whose measurements are below.

Vital Statistics for
Rufous Hummingbird #Y14857
Age/Sex--hatch-year male
Weight--3.6g
Wing Chord--40.9mm
Tail Length--26.5mm
Tail Fork--6.0mm
Culmen (upper bill)--16.0mm
Bill Corrugations--not recorded
Gorget--seven orange-red metallic feathers

After completing all measurements and banding the Spartanburg hummer, we passed the bird to Mrs. Hight, who released it gently and watched as it flew to a nearly treetop. Then it was time to load up equipment and aim our van up I-26 for a trip toward Columbus NC--where we'd heard there was yet another winter vagrant hummingbird to be banded.