Here's your chance to hold a hummingbird

$20 lets you xml_name, get updates on tiny birds

Credit: Photo courtesy of Catawba County Parks

Ranger Dwayne Martin holds a ruby-throated hummingbird at Riverbend Park. Visitors can get an up-close look at the speedy little creatures from 7 to 10 a.m. every Saturday of this month as Martin captures and bands them.

By From staff reports | news@hickoryrecord.com
Published: August 11, 2009

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HICKORY --

A bird in the hand is worth … $20.

The fee earns you the right to name and release one of the hummingbirds a ranger catches at Riverbend Park on Saturdays this month.

People who adopt a hummingbird also get a photo of their bird, a synopsis of a ruby-throated hummingbird's life and updates about the jewel-toned creature, if he or she is recaptured.

Each August, staff and volunteers at Catawba County parks collect hundreds of the birds for banding, which identifies each bird with a number. Other people do the same thing nationally to help get a better idea about the lives of hummingbirds.

The birds winter in Central America, mostly in southern Mexico. That's because, in addition to the sugar water humans use to attract the lively little creatures to windowsills and porches, they survive by eating insects that aren't around in colder climates.

Last year, Riverbend Park got word of the first hummingbird ever banded in Hickory and recaptured elsewhere. Twelve days after being here, the male bird, No. E76247, was in Rockport, Texas — a 1,067-mile journey. It meant he averaged 89 miles a day.

Many of the birds caught and released in Hickory come back to the same spot to be caught again, said Ranger Dwayne Martin. That includes the many who don't nest in Riverbend Park but only pass through Hickory on their way to warmer climates. Often, the hummingbirds appear in the same spot on the same day a year or years later.

The money from hummingbird adoptions helps the park pay for sugar water and feeders to keep them coming back, Martin said.