Date: 10/4/25 11:35 am From: <lehman.paul...> via groups.io <lehman.paul...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] Chasing the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, or any rare hummingbird for that matter
For those chasing the Ruby-throated hummingbird, or any stakeout rare hummingbird for that matter, be aware that many hummingbirds migrate during the day and what they do is they feed just several times first thing in the morning to tank up and then they depart. So whatever is the last day for the Ruby throat, there's a good chance it would be present only first thing in the morning for perhaps an hour and then it leaves. So if you are contemplating chasing the bird and will not be doing so today, or any later day for that matter, once you've heard that the bird is present throughout a fair part of the day, then assume it will stay till not only dark but the very beginning of the following morning, but then after that all bets are off. Today, the bird started feeding and calling already at Civil Twilight 20 minutes before even official dawn, if not slightly earlier than that. So today around 6:20 or 6:30 in the morning. Don't wait until you hear that it's still there, and don't have a long leisurely breakfast, as you then might conceivably be too late if it happens to be the bird's last final day.
There have been many horror stories over the years from many different states of people chasing rare hummingbirds, often at feeders, where they waited until they heard it was there or took a little too long to get there and missed the bird by an hour or less, never to be seen again.
Paul Lehman, San Diego
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