DAN GROEBNER

Where can you get up close and personal while learning more about the White Mountain’s airborne iridescent acrobats? At the 20th Annual High Country Hummingbird Festival, of course! This year’s event is being held from 8 a.m. to noon on July 29, 2023, at its historical location on the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Sipe White Mountain Wildlife Area, just south of Springerville - Eagar on Highway 191.

The highlight of the event is, of course, the large number and variety of hummingbirds that are captured and banded in front of crowds, as Tom Wood and Sheri Williamson explain their natural history studies of hummingbirds in the Southwest. Tom and Sheri, who co-founded the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory (SABO) in 1996, have handled over 12,000 birds in more than 20 years of research at SABO and banding at the High Country Hummingbird Festival. SABO is a non-profit organization that sponsors many worthwhile projects and conducts other banding activities around Arizona (SABO.org).

Banding critters with numbered leg tags is one of the most effective ways to study many small birds, even though only trained and licensed biologists are allowed to conduct this research by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. When enough birds have been banded, recaptures from different capture stations throughout the world provide valuable information on where birds travel, how long they live, and what habitats are the most important to them.

Long-term studies like Sheri and Tom’s work provide critical information on how hummingbirds are adapting to changes in shorter-term weather trends that don’t bode well for more longer-term climate changes. Extreme short-term weather events can sometimes get more attention than longer-term but more gradual changes, so studies that span decades provide priceless information. And all for the small price of a few birds wearing some extra bling!

So what is it about hummingbirds that will drive dedicated biologists and interested citizens to study and appreciate them, reliably maintaining so many feeders that sometimes it feels like a sugar cane field in the backyard would be worthwhile? Many interests lie in this bird’s unique adaptations and astounding flight skills, their incredible stamina in migration, and especially their skills in manipulating light to create the iridescent colors that males use to show off.

Hummingbirds are the high-performance vehicles of the bird world. In addition to millimeter control of their hovering position in gusty winds, they are the only birds that can instantly dart backward, sideways, up, or down. Anna’s hummingbirds are known as nature’s fastest vertebrates for their size, exceeding 60 miles per hour in a dive. However, 20-30 miles per hour is their typical commuting speed.

The ruby-throated hummingbird, which is found east of the Mississippi River, is famous for its 500-mile non-stop flights across the Gulf of Mexico during both spring and fall migrations. But the local rufous hummingbird is no slouch either, migrating from Alaska to Mexico every year, which is a record 3,000 miles for a hummingbird.

The dazzling coloration of many hummer males is not due to pigments or stains in the feathers. The orange, magenta, fire red, royal purple, and iridescent green colors that we see are the only wavelengths of light being reflected back out from the feathers when in bright light. All other colors are effectively being reflected back into the body of the feather through the microscopic arrangement of the feather’s fine structure, which acts much like a glass prism that separates all of the colors in the visible spectrum. That’s why the color can change instantly with different lighting conditions, so it’s always a good idea to try and position hummingbird feeders in good light to bring out their best!

Interestingly, their feathers can also emit UV wavelengths that are not visible to humans. And guess what, their eyes (like most birds) also have an extra type of color-receiving cone nerve ending in their eyes that can see these UV colors, in addition to the blue, green, and red that we have. Hummingbirds can blend the UV hues with other colors in the visible spectrum to create an almost infinite palette of colors recognized by these phenomenal birds.

The ability to discriminate minor color changes in flowers may be a hummingbird’s secret in figuring out which of the flowers are ready to provide the much-needed nectar. They can’t waste much time shopping as they have to eat almost half of their body weight every day just to sustain themselves, even though they are more than 95% efficient in converting the nectar into energy. Could you eat half your weight in food per day? Other than during a hot dog eating contest? For comparison, humans, horses, and cows usually eat a daily average of under 4% of their body weight. With that kind of gluttonous eating, who could imagine that most White Mountain hummingbirds weigh less than a nickel? Rivoli’s hummingbirds are considered giants at 10 grams (2 nickels!).

Anybody who has had the pleasure of witnessing hummingbird flight quickly realizes why there are no obese hummingbirds out there. Their hearts beat 1,200 times and they take 250 breaths per minute just to keep their oversized chest, or pectoral, muscles fed with the fuel needed to flap their wings at up to 200 times per second. And these muscles don’t get to rest on the upstroke like most birds, as hummingbirds can twist their wings to create lift on both strokes with no wasted movements. They actually get around more like a dragonfly and other invertebrate insects than a bird.

There will be plenty of opportunities to see squadrons of hummingbirds displaying their acrobatic skills that are being fed at Sipe White Mountain Wildlife Area at the festival.

Come prepared to spend most of the morning outdoors with the potential of some summer rain. Parking can become extremely limited if the area receives rain. Rain or shine, carpooling is encouraged. 

The Round Valley Chamber of Commerce has coordinated with several vendors to provide snacks, water, soft drinks, and lunch for purchase. This is a cash-only event, so come prepared and support the Chamber. Pets must be kept on a leash and are not allowed near live wildlife.



THE FREE, FAMILY-FRIENDLY FESTIVAL WILL ALSO INCLUDE:

• Hummingbird banding by Southeastern   

•       Arizona Bird Observatory. 

• Plant displays to attract hummingbirds.

• Live wildlife from R Lazy J Wildlife Ranch.

• Live bird display from Arizona Game and 

Fish Department.

• Take a photo with a live critter at the critter 

photo booth. 

• Activities for children/U.S. Forest Service 

will conduct its Junior Ranger Program.

• Informational talks about hummingbirds 

and bird calls of the White Mountains.

• Booths from local, outdoor-oriented 

organizations.

For more information, visit azgfd.com/wildlife/viewing/events/hummingbird-festival/ or call the Game and Fish office in Pinetop at 928-532-3680. The most current information and event schedule can be found on AZGFD’s Pinetop Regional Facebook page at facebook.com/AZGFDPinetop/.

QUICK REMINDER FOR PEOPLE FEEDING HUMMINGBIRDS 

IN BEAR COUNTRY: 

 Please take down your feeder if there’s a bear sighted in your neighborhood or place it so it is not accessible even to the most agile bear. Without attractants, the bears should leave promptly. If the bears find and destroy the feeder, the birds will be out of food temporarily anyway and you’ll have to buy another feeder. If the bears won’t leave because of access to feeders, they may have to be destroyed.