It’s hummer nesting time in Oklahoma
The hummers have arrived and, for the record, they made it without the help of geese.
Favorites of every homeowner with a backyard of flowers or a porch with a red-accented sugar-water-filled feeder, ruby-throated and black-chinned hummingbirds are returning to Oklahoma.
Likely, strong southerly winds have helped them along as numbers of first-sighting reports started the first of April but increased noticeably mid–month, and “new” sightings trickled to a few through the month. To settle an old wive’s tale, the geese had nothing to do with this.
“It’s hard to imagine something that small flying all the way across the Gulf of Mexico and that started an old long-standing rumor that hummingbirds would migrate on the backs of geese or other birds. People just couldn’t believe they could fly across the Gulf by themselves,” said Dan Reinking, a senior biologist at Sutton Avian Research Center in Bartlesville and author of the Oklahoma Breeding Bird Atlas.Two species of hummingbirds nest in Oklahoma, he said. When in full plumage the black-chinned male has a black chin with a thin strip of iridescent purple on the throat. In poor light or with immature specimens not yet in full color, it can be hard to tell apart from the ruby-throated.
Ruby-throated hummingbirds have a black mask and a brilliant iridescent red throat, but it too can look dark in poor lighting.
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