Yesterday, Nancy and Joan came over to catch the Buff-bellied that's been here since Oct.15th but has been playing hard to get. This bird likes to hang out in dense shrubbery, making him hard to photograph. I'd managed to get one shot that when blown up a lot seemed to show a bracelet, so I was hopeful that this was one of the Buffies Nan banded here last year. Yesterday she confirmed that it is, making "Louie" my first returnee.
Here he is, sporting a green color mark to make him distinguishable from any other Buffies that might show up.




Lizette, New Orleans, La.
USDA Zone 9

Congratulations Lizette...
On your first returnee of the season! What a great photo abd U could even see his tiny band which for me is a feat unto itself.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Thanks, Penny, it really is exciting. Louie is not only the first returnee of the season, he's my first ever. Although I was fortunate enough to have a few winter hummers visit my last house, none of them stayed long or returned the following year.
And even if I get many more in the future, I don't think I'll ever become blase about it. It's just so amazing that they can find their way back to the very same yard, and so thrilling when the yard they choose is your own.


Lizette, New Orleans, La.
USDA Zone 9

Lizette, I completely agree and feel the same way. Even now after all these years it still blows me away that they are able to find their way back to the same location. I can't even find my way to downtown Buffalo and that is only about 15 miles away.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Hurray for Louie!!!

Joan Garvey - Metairie, LA Zone 9

Congratulations is right!! Even if you can't take direct credit....

"To distinguish him for other Buffies" - that is the spirit. There are problems and then there are problems. Your yard is now official Buffy wintering grounds and things just might get real interesting.

Louie is very handsome, and I love his jewelry! I've never seen a banded hummer. Someone please tell me what is printed on the band. I think it would be amazingly fashionable to have a toe ring that looked like a hummer band. I wish I lived in a zone that overwintered hummers. I am suffering the empty nest syndrome. Lizette, I am so envious!

Susan
zone 6a South St. Louis County, MO

Congrats to all!

Lizette, I think you can take some credit for Louie's return - you obviously must have provided great accommodations.

Steve
Wichita Kansas
Zone 6

Susan, Louie's band reads "N98987." Maybe Nancy or Kevin could give an explanation of what the numbers mean, since all I know is that the banding of wild birds is a federally administered program.
We're very fortunate here in southeast La. to host quite a few different species of "winter hummers." We're not the only place that sees them, though. I'd guess Rufous and maybe others have made appearances in your area. That's why many people now leave feeders up after the Ruby-throateds have all departed.
Steve, I've planted quite a few flowers here but I think the location is the key. And I was fortunate to be starting with a yard with good "bones"....Live Oaks, mature Azaleas, Camellias, hollies, etc. For that, I'm grateful to the previous owner, Mae Lou, who tended the garden for forty years. That's who Louie was named for.

Lizette, New Orleans, La.
USDA Zone 9

Susan, Lizette, et al:

There are two types of bands used in banding birds, so let me give a quick run-down. The primary band is an aluminum band bearing a unique nine-digit number. The Bird Banding Laboratory is housed at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, part of the United States Geological Survey, which is in turn part of the United States Department of the Interior (whew, that's all a mouthful). The BBL licenses banders and issues them the pre-numbered bands.

On a hummingbird band, however, the band is so tiny that there simply isn't room to inscribe the entire 9 digits. So the BBL designed a letter + number system, where a letter on the band replaces the first four digits. I don't have Nancy's chart in front of me for a specific example, but in this case, "N" might mean the number 8000. So Lizette's Buff-bellied Hummingbird's "real" number would be 800098987 in the BBL database. So for each letter, there would be 100,000 band numbers available, from 000,000 to 999,999. The letters are not used in alphabetical order; the first hummingbirds used the letter X (and from this, derived their nickname of "x-bands") in place of the number 7000. Other letters used thus far are T, Y, R, N, C, E, H, L, J, K, M, U, and P. Aside from standing for four digits of the 9-digit number, there is no particular significance to the letter itself.

However, since the bands are issued on a flat sheet of aluminum, with 300 bands printed to the sheet (the entire sheet is only about 4" x 6"), banders who routinely handle even a few of another bander's birds may learn to recognize certain combinations. Since every band between, say, Q10001 and Q10300 will be on a single sheet, all those numbers will "belong" to a single bander. For the wintering birds in the southeast, most of the banders "pre-share" their band number ranges with each other so that if a bird is recaptured, they can narrow down whose it may be without having to go online and check with the BBL. So in that sense, the letters sometimes help an astute bander identify a "foreign" bird caught in his or her trap.

For other birds, even small ones like warblers and sparrows, the bird's leg is so much larger that the entire number fits.

This band is intended to be permanent, although it's not glued shut or anything; under normal circumstances a properly fitted band won't reopen accidentally (it's simply curved around the bird's leg, able to move freely but not so freely that it could come off over the foot, nor loose enough that something might get stuck between the band and the leg. It permanently identifies that bird as an individual - something like a social security number would.

However, it's usually difficult to read band numbers unless a bird is in the hand. For hummingbirds, this means we must re-trap them to confirm their identity, unless they are color-marked. So in Lizette's case, should another Buffy show up (and in her area, that's not unlikely), then seeing one without the color-mark on the head would confirm it was a different individual, and in an attempt to trap and band that bird (or to verify an existing band number), we can allow a color-marked bird to enter and leave the trap without re-trapping him. That's not usually an issue with Buff-bellieds, however, as we seldom can catch them more than once in a season, and sometimes not even that.

With larger birds, some bird banders are permitted to use additional colored bands on the legs of the bird, to make it easier to ID individuals as they come and go. These colored bands are used in combinations unique to that bander, who keeps a record of the colors used. So for instance, a bander might use 3 colored bands (red, green, blue from top to bottom) on a bird and match that sequence to a particular BBL band number in his records. For birds which have different plumages between the sexes (for example, a Northern Cardinal), the same color combo could be used twice, once on a bird of each sex, to reference separate band numbers. This isn't an option for hummingbirds--hence Nancy's use of color marks on the head, and some other banders' use of dyes on the breast, for instance.

Kevin Morgan
Baton Rouge, LA

Kevin
Thank you for such an indepth explanation of how the bands are numbers and used. It must have taken someone quite a while to figure out an alternative to using all 9 digits on that teeny tiny band.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Lizette!! WOW, Hooray for Louie!! And for Nancy who banded him and confirmed his return! Yes it is certain - you have chosen your home location with precision and the rewards are showing. CONGRATULATIONS!!!



Carol
Milford, CT
Zone 6

Kevin, although I've watched the banding process quite a few times now, I've never thought to ask for an explanation of the numbers. Thanks for providing one, and thanks to Susan for provoking the question.
Susan, I'm not so sure you'd want to wear a dogtag on your toe, but a tri-colored ring might be nice. Be sure to post pics!
BTW, I believe there's a licensed hummingbird bander who lives in your area, but his name escapes me. Some banders allow visitors to attend banding sessions, or they band at local festivals to allow the public to see hummers "up close and personal."
Ward, I hope you're right, and things get very "interesting" around here. With a Buffy and a Rufous, it's already pretty noisy, but hey, the more the merrier!
Carol, thanks for the congrats. I feel very lucky and privileged to have been able to get this place.


Lizette, New Orleans, La.
USDA Zone 9

I suspect things are interesting around your place, hummingbirds or no hummingbirds.

Kevin: thank you for the indepth information. I wish I could attend a banding.

Lizette: and thank you for reminding me of Lanny Chambers http://www.hummingbirds.net/) in Fenton, Mo (Southwest St. Louis County, about 20 minutes or so from me). He does do hummingbird banding festivals, and I checked online the locations in MO and IL, but I'm not famaliar with the towns he listed. I'll have to do some research. Maybe I'll be able
to attend a banding next year.

And I do wear toe rings. Presently I'm wearing 2. I used to wear 3, but I broke a toe last spring and took the ring off before the swelling started. I haven't tried putting the ring back on, and I don't think the toe is the same size it was before the break. And if a hummingbird was ever banded in my yard I would most definitely have a toe ring made with the 9 digit number on it and the hummers 'name' as a momento of the occasion.

Susan
zone 6a South St. Louis County, MO