The Hummingbird Festival

The Camp Sagawau Environmental Education Center had a Hummingbird Festival the weekend I was visiting Sandee and family. It was very small, but quite educational.

Station 1: We were hummingbirds migrating from the Yucatan Peninsula. At each stop (station), there was a wheel we had to spin that determined whether we made it to our destination or fell upon hard times. We had to make sure we ate enough to make it to the next stop. They even handed out granola bars at the Yucatan station to start us on our way.

Hummingbirds fly 600 miles from the Yucatan Peninsula across the Gulf of Mexico. They need to eat double their weight in food every day. If we used energy like hummingbirds, the average human would have to eat 300 lbs of food per day to make this migration.

This is a hummingbird capturing cage

Station 2: Alabama. Sandee didn’t eat enough food and perished somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico. I barely ate enough to make it, but I did. Mikaela must have gorged herself in the Yucatan, because she made it to Alabama with energy to spare. The flight across the Gulf of Mexico to Alabama is 600 miles and takes a hummingbird 12-36 hours.

A hummingbird’s heart is 2.5% of its total body mass as compared to the human heart which is only 0.5% total body mass.

Station 3: Tennessee.  Mikaela and I both ate enough food to continue on our journey.

A hummingbird beats its wings 60-80 times per second or 3600-4800 times per minute. Let’s see you flap your arms that fast.

 

 Supplies needed for bird banding:

Station 4: Shawnee National Forest, Illinois. I hit a tree or something and broke a wing. I was found by a rehabber and stayed for care and recuperation. I was released three weeks later and continued on my journey. Mikaela ate enough to continue on to Sagawau.

Hummingbirds visit 1000-2000 flower blooms per day.

Station 5: Sagawau Environmental Education Center. Mikaela finished her journey, was caught, and banded so that we may track future migrations.

Mikaela made a hummingbird nest at one of the craft stations. Hummingbirds make their nests out of spiderwebs:

Male hummingbirds arrive well ahead of the females to claim their territories. Females usually lay 2 eggs, which take 12-14 days for incubation. Young birds leave the nest 18-20 days after they are hatched.

We got there a touch too late in the day to see them banding the hummingbirds. The only hummingbird I saw was lying in a woman’s outstretched palm after it was banded. She released it. I never saw another one.