Subject: [Tweeters] hummingbird nesting schedule
Date: May 8 07:51:34 2007
From: mgd at myuw.net - mgd at myuw.net


Suzanne,

There are a couple of places you can look to find this information. The Burke Musuem's nest record card data is online at: http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/collections/ornithology/phenology/species_toc.php

For the rufous hummingbird it states:
First-egg dates: Earliest 11 March (Julian
day 70); latest 24 June (Julian day 175).
Over 70% of records fall between 25 March
(Julian day 84) and 13 May (Julian day
133). The long period of nest initiation and
peaks in early April and late May suggest
that females raise two broods. All records
are for western Washington lowlands.

For the Anna's it lists 5 records, with first egg dates being February - April. A friend of mine told me he watched a female Anna's gathering nesting material the other day, so eggs are also laid in May. The Anna's is a recent arrival to the area and there's still a lot that's unknown about it's biology here, at the north end of it's range.

The other place you can look is on Birds of North America Online. Access is by subscription, but the Seattle Public Library has added it to their collection so it's FREE to anyone with a SPL library card. Go to: www.spl.org, click on databases, then click on the A-Z index.

Mike Donahue
Seattle