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A hummingbird that came in from the dark

By clock on December 19, 2006.

Apparently, I am not the only one to see a hummingbird in Chapel Hill of a species that should not be found around here. While I am quite confident that the visitor to my porch was a female Blue-throated Hummingbird, usually not found this far North, these neighbors of mine have found a Rufous hummingbird. As far as I know, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the only species that should be seen around here.

One individual of one species is an anecdote. Another individiual of another species is another anecdote. But if there are more and more such sightings over the next couple of years, we may start looking into the causes. Is it global warming?

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Probably not global warming, no. Western hummingbirds often get lost on fall migration, and turn up in the east. There's ample evidence bird ranges are shifting northward, and that probably is global warming, but the hummingbirds you're reporting are western hummingbirds moving east.

The rufous hummer appears to have pretty much a northwestern range. This is said of the blue-throated range: "United States range restricted to southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico and west Texas. Stray elsewhere." I think it would be remarkable to find either in North Carolina, although I agree that it wouldn't appear to indicate any effect from global warming.

From wiki.

The Blue-throated Hummingbird is native to mountain woodlands of Mexico, although during the summer it is an uncommon to rare resident of moist, wooded canyons in southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and western Texas in the United States.

I wouldn't call them uncommon in SW Arizona, though. I saw a number of them last year, including a female on the nest.

Here's a list of vagrant hummingbird records from the Carolinas

http://www.hiltonpond.org/ResearchHummerVagrantMain.html

Hummingbird ID isn't that easy, BTW. Was it a male?

Rufous hummingbirds have a pretty northerly breeding range, so I do not find it all that surprising that they could survive an east coast winter. I think that they are being seen more because birders know to look for them and many maintain their hummingbird feeders throughout the fall.

Rufous hummingbirds seem to follow the Pacific flyway for the most part, but a few may take a wrong turn or get blown eastward by a strong cold front and end up on the Mississippi or Atlantic flyway. We get other western species too, like western kingbird and Bullock's oriole. A few southwestern species - like cave swallows and your blue-throated - seem to show up every fall as well. I am not sure exactly what dynamic is leading to that.

There are definitely a few species that are expanding their wintering ranges northward. Robins are a good example.