{coming soon!}
Click here to hear the “zee-chuppity-chup” of the male Rufous Hummingbird. (Scroll down a bit to the “typical voice” section.)
A Rufous Hummingbird banded in January, 2010 in Tallahassee, Florida was recapture in June, 2010 in Chenega Bay, Alaska—roughly 3,530 miles away! Of the western hummingbirds that occasionally show up in the east, the Rufous is the most frequently spotted—even in winter. For example, a female Rufous hung out at the American Museum of Natural History (how very appropriate) in New York City from mid-December, 2011 into early January, 2012. This species makes a circuit during its two migration periods. They generally follow lowland coastal routes north in the spring and a highlands route (via alpine meadows filled with nectar-rich flowers) south in the late summer and early fall.
On the wild side of the Arkansas River valley 