Jon Hamm Helps Hummingbirds, Now You Can Too
Audubon’s Hummingbirds at Home App Provides Scientists with Sweet, Sweet Data
NEW YORK, N.Y. (April 13, 2016)—With spring migration underway, actor Jon Hamm and the National Audubon Society invites birders and nature enthusiasts of all ages. That’s to help track the health of hummingbirds with Audubon’s Hummingbirds at Home app. This citizen science project collects data that provide scientists with crucial information about the bird species and the plants that sustain them.
Every spring, hummingbirds visit our yards, looking for nourishment from our gardens and feeders. Many hummingbirds migrate very long distances and must eat several times their weight in nectar daily to stay alive. Audubon scientists recently released a groundbreaking study that revealed some species of hummingbirds could lose more than 50 percent of their current ranges by 2080 if climate change continues on its current trajectory. As flowers bloom earlier because of warming conditions, there is a growing mismatch between flowering times and the arrival of hummingbirds in their breeding areas. Citizen scientists recording data on hummingbirds and their food sources will help Audubon’s scientists understand this growing imbalance.
Here’s how you can help
· Create an account:http://www.hummingbirdsathome.org/ or through the mobile app (free IOS and Android versions are available)
1. Identify a patch of habitat: can be your backyard, a spot in a park, a playground—all it needs to be is a place hummingbirds may visit that can be surveyed at least once.
2. Conduct scheduled patch surveys: these are surveys of the patch identified above scheduled in advance. Data recorded during these surveys can be entered into the Hummingbirds at Home app under “Patch Survey” in the Main Menu. Surveys can be as short as 5 minutes or as long as 60. Be sure to select the right hummingbird you survey from the hummingbird pick list, select the blooming food sources in the patch, and check off the food source if the hummingbird fed while surveyed.
3. Submit data on single sightings: In addition to scheduled surveys, single sightings of hummingbirds can be recorded when they occur outside of the identified patch location or time.
4. Log visits to a nectar source: choose any single nectar source within the selected patch and log the hummingbird visits made to that source during the scheduled survey.
How to attract hummingbirds
One of the best ways to help hummingbirds thrive is to make sure your yard is bird-friendly. If you don’t have a yard, you can still help these birds by creating a native plant container garden on your patio or balcony. Hummingbirds are specialized for nectar-eating, evident by long bills and grooved tongues ideal for probing flowers. Follow these steps to maximize the potential of your hummingbird-friendly yard:
1. Fill your yard with flowering plants, vines, shrubs, and trees. Even a window box or hanging basket can help.
2. Grow native plants like trumpet honeysuckle, bee balm, and hummingbird sage, which provide much more nectar than hybrids and exotics.
3. Plant red or orange tubular flowers to attract hummingbirds, in addition to other flowers rich in nectar.
4. Group similar plants together and choose species with different blooming periods so that there will be a steady supply of flowers nearly year round.
5. Leave some sticks and small branches on bushes and trees to enable ready perches for hummingbirds.
6. Eliminate or minimize the use of pesticides in your yard. Hummingbirds consume many small insects in addition to nectar, and they as well as butterflies will benefit from a pesticide-free space.
7. Encourage your neighbors to make their yards hummingbird friendly. An entire corridor of habitat is much more valuable than scattered patches.
To learn about over 20 hummingbird flowers that will attract pollinators to your yard, read this guide by Happy DIY Home.
6 fun facts about hummingbirds
Hummingbirds in the United States are critical wildflower pollinators. The 2,000 species of pollinating birds worldwide play an important role in sustaining the health of the global ecosystem and food supply.
Actor Jon Hamm once rescued a hummingbird that flew into a home. Here’s a video and recap of the encounter with Jon Hamm. As well as instructions on how to help any trapped birds in your own home.
As small as they are, hummingbirds are ready prey for predators ranging from frogs to Greater Roadrunners to spiders and dragonflies.
To protect themselves, some species of hummingbirds build their nests near hawks’ nests. The hawks keep hummingbird predators like squirrels and jays away from the nest, while ignoring the hummers themselves (since they’re too small to be a worthy meal for the raptor).
Hummingbird tongues act as small pumps that consume nectar at a rate of approximately 15 licks per second.
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the only species of hummingbird in North America that breeds east of the Great Plains. The tiny bird can fly non-stop for more than 1,200 miles.
Source: The National Audubon Society and@audubonsociety.
