Hardy Hummingbird Leaves Oak Park To Head South
OAK PARK, Ill. (CBS) -- A winter-hardy hummingbird that has been staying in west suburban Oak Park for nearly two months has left the area, presumably headed south to spend the winter.
Dr. Eric Gyllenhaal, a birdwatcher and museum consultant, says the rufous hummingbird showed up at his nectar feeder on the Monday before Thanksgiving and left on Friday, Jan. 6.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's John Cody reports
Podcast
The bird showed about a month after the rest of the hummingbird population had left town. She made several daily visits to the nectar feeders Gyllenhaal put up in his back yard.
The normally warm weather bird endured December temperatures in the 20s without any obvious ill effects.
Gyllenhaal says the female hummingbird fed a bit Friday morning, then disappeared after noon.
"I saw her come to the feeders several times that morning and then I think we went off on a birding expedition or something and didn't come back for a while," Gyllenhaal said. "When we did come back, at about noon, there were people who were looking for her and hadn't seen her that day."
A handful of other hummingbirds that stayed late in the Midwest also picked the same weekend to head south. The birds normally summer in the Rockies, then head south in October, according to Gyllenhaal. But he says a tiny, constant percentage of the population head east to the Midwest, stays late, then heads to the southeastern states.
Gyllenhaal says this behavior could be seen as useful to maintain the population, because migrating east then south could avoid problems finding food in drought stricken Texas.
Gyllenhaal and his two sons are dedicated bird watchers and supplied their hummingbird with two nectar feeders: one with a high concentration of sugar and one with a protein supplement to help build up its feathers.
