Marie,

On the insect front, things aren't really as severe as you suggest. Tiny
flying insects are active any time the temperature is above 30 degrees.
I've seen this personally in the "thumb" of Michigan in late January. The
Rufous Hummingbirds that are in our area this time of year typically have a
certain amount of body fat, which is obtained primarily by eating insects.
But they can survive two or three weeks on nothing but sugar water, living
off that stored fat. Back in 2002, a three Rufous Hummingbirds in the
Kidron and Wooster area, and one in Logan County, survived two spells of
more than a week each where the daytime high never went above 20 degrees.
All three of these birds lingered into January and departed during a warm
spell. I am preparing a paper for publication in North American Bird
Bander, and have a supplemental table showing a total of 55 Rufous
Hummingbirds that have stayed later than the winter solstice in Michigan,
Ontario, Ohio, and Indiana. This is roughly 20-25% of the total number of
records of this species in all these states combined. Some winters none
stayed that late, while others (like last year) several have.

Rufous Hummingbirds staying at one locale from September to April is very
rare, even in places like New Orleans or Mobile. They seem to get restless
around the solstice and move on to a secondary wintering site at that time.
Last "winter", one Rufous in Mahoning County stayed until mid-February and
another in Fort Wayne, Indiana stayed until mid-April. So far, the early
winter season has been mild, close to what it was last year, so I suspect
that these birds will do just fine, and of course they know best when to
leave.

As of today, there is still one Rufous Hummingbird remaining in Michigan,
two or three in Indiana, and at least 5-6 in Ohio.

--
Allen T. Chartier
Inkster, Michigan
Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: www.amazilia.net
Blog: http://mihummingbirdguy.blogspot.com/

On Sat, Dec 22, 2012 at 6:09 PM, marys1000 <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> The probable RH in Fairborn is still here.   Anyone know if all the
> others are still around?  Allen Chartier sort of alluded in an email
> that it could stick around till the New Year when I had assumed it would
> leave long before.
> Then I read in a bird magazine that a Mr. Zimmerman(?) at BSBO said
> something to the affect we hope it overwinters here.   That sort of
> surprised me as even a remote possibility.  I realize that insects do
> come out when its say 40F but we are entering a period of sustained mid
> 30s or lower as a high with little insect activity. Last winter there
> was a period of 3 weeks when it never got above 32F.  Hummers use sugar
> water as an energy source to get the protein containing insects that
> support life so....this just doesn't seem like a good scenario to me.
> Of course finding any nectar bearing plants between here and the first
> half of the trip to Mexico doesn't sound promising either.   Any idea of
> if or when they leave?
>
> Marie, Fairborn
>
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