Path: utzoo!attcan!ncrcan!scocan!mark
From: mark@sco.COM (Mark Chojnacki)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: HUMMINGBIRD WARNING
Summary: Anna's is sedentary, others are not
Keywords: hummingbirds migration California
Message-ID: <1990Aug3.101449.13726@sco.COM>
Date: 3 Aug 90 14:14:49 GMT
References: <121930@pyramid.pyramid.com>
Sender: mark@sco.com (Mark Chojnacki)
Reply-To: mark@sco.com (Mark Chojnacki)
Followup-To: rec.birds
Distribution: na
Organization: SCO Canada, Inc. (formerly HCR Corporation)
Lines: 42

In article <121930@pyramid.pyramid.com> sandra@pyrtech.pyramid.com (Sandra Macika) writes:
>In article <32320003@hprmokg.HP.COM> jackiec@hprmokg.HP.COM (Jackie Christopherson) writes:
>>
>>       Also, it is great to feed the birds in the Springtime, but not 
>>       towards the Fall because if they think there is food for them, 
>>       they will ignore their natural instinct to go to warmer weather 
>>       in the winter...this also could be disasterous. 
>>
>>       JC 
>
>Doesn't this depend on where you live? Here in the San Francisco Bay Area,
>I think the hummingbirds stay around all year long.
>
>Sandra

Anna's Hummingbird (the commonest hummingbird around homes and gardens in the
Bay area) is mostly sedentary. Many other hummingbird species in North
America are not (including several which occur in Northern California).
In fact, some populations of Anna's do migrate. They move NORTH in winter.
Yep, you read that right. :-) Anna's Hummingbird is known to move north in
fall into parts of Washington state and British Columbia (particularly
Vancouver Island).

In Northern California, two common migratory species are Allen's Hummingbird
(commonest in coastal areas and near-coast mountain ranges) and Rufous
Hummingbird (occurs throughout the state and eastwards towards the Rocky
Mountains). Other species include Black-chinned and Calliope (the smallest
hummer for both the U.S. and Canada).

As you can probably tell, I'm a bit of a fan of hummers. This spring I
went on a birding trip to Southern California and Arizona (saw 9 species
of hummers!). Also, the nodename for the 386 box on my desk here at
SCO Canada is called "troch" (short for Trochilidae: the latin family
name for the hummingbirds). 

And now a challenge: has anybody on the net seen more than 12 species of
hummingbirds in North America (U.S. and Canada)? I'm curious to find out
if there are any other listers out there...

Mark Chojnacki, Network Applications, SCO Canada, Inc. (416) 922-1937
mark@sco.com                          (formerly HCR Corporation)
or ..!uunet!scocan!mark               Toronto, Ontario, Canada