With steady hands, Fred Bassett gently clamps a tiny, lightweight metal band with identification numbers above a hummingbird’s foot.
“I never get tired of doing this,” he says, talking to appreciative observers in the shady yard of a rural home in Southeastern Idaho. They watch him weigh and measure the length of a male, black-chinned hummingbird.
“It’s not like doing this is any kind of hardship,” says Fred, 77, a certified master bird bander. He is among only 125 people nationwide with a master banding permit issued by the Bird Banding Laboratory through the U.S. Geological Survey. During winter, Fred is based in his home state of Alabama and travels throughout the Southeast, especially Florida.
As he gently handles the high-energy bird, it becomes subdued.
“You can feel their heartbeat—about 600 beats a minute when they’re calm and 1,200 beats when they’re exerting themselves,” he says, gently depositing the bird in the outstretched palm of an awestruck onlooker.
“If your heart does that, you’d be in a heap o’ trouble,” Fred says, laughing. The bird seems to be napping, his iridescent plumage hypnotizing observers. Eventually, he zooms away.
Lifelong Mission
After retiring as an Air Force pilot, Fred discovered a new calling when friends taught him to band hummingbirds. Since 1997, he has made it his mission to band the diminutive birds, teach others how to do it and educate observers wherever he travels. He has banded more than 35,000 hummingbirds at 1,400 locations in 17 states.
Fred notes each bird’s species, gender, length, weight and band number. The information goes into the Bird Banding Laboratory’s database. Generally, North American hummingbirds weigh 0.1 to 0.2 ounces and are 3 to 4 inches long with a wingspan of about 3 to 4 inches.
To share what he’s learned, Fred founded hummingbirdresearch.net and has posted videos titled “Hummingbirds with Fred Bassett” on YouTube.
“You’re the lucky ones out here in the West because you routinely see broad-tailed, calliope, black-chinned and rufous,” he says. “Back East, the ruby-throated hummingbird is dominant.”
Insatiable Appetites
Generally, Fred bands about 70 to 80 birds daily, with several returning in the same day.
“If you want to put up a feeder, remember it’s one part sugar to four parts water and no honey or red food coloring,” he says.
At the Southeastern Idaho home in midsummer, the tiny birds with voracious appetites gobble nearly 3 gallons of sugar water daily at 10 one-quart feeders hung throughout the yard. By late July, young birds have fledged.
Sometimes, more than 100 birds dive and hover every evening. To satisfy their seemingly insatiable hunger, the homeowners buy 250 pounds of sugar from spring to fall. The feeders are left up through October because some stragglers are still migrating.
As he bands the birds, Fred describes their remarkable lives. After building a nest of soft plant fibers, twigs and fresh spiderwebs, a female often shingles the exterior with tiny bits of leaves. Her two eggs, each about the size of a Tic Tac, incubate for 15 to 18 days. After hatching, the babies fly away 18 to 28 days later. Birds tend to return to their birthplace.
The most agile bird, hummingbirds’ flight maneuvers are mind-boggling as their wings move in a figure-eight pattern at more than 50 times a second, creating the characteristic humming sound.
“Their shoulders rotate 360 degrees, so they can hover and fly any direction—even backward,” Fred says. “They make pilots jealous.”
Remarkable Stamina
Hummingbirds are speedy fliers, zooming up to 37 mph and up to 60 mph in courtship dives. The ruby-throated hummingbird often doubles its weight and migrates alone, flying nonstop 600 miles across the Gulf of Mexico in 18 to 24 hours, depending on the weather.
“People tell me that’s impossible,” Fred says. “I tell them they can believe whatever they want, but that’s what the research shows from our banding.”
About 80% of hummingbirds do not make it through the first year. For those that make it through the first year, the average life span is three to five years. Yet some record-setting birds defy those odds and live as long as 13 years, according to information at hummingbirdresearch.net.
Future Discoveries
Eventually, new technology may supplement the bands, Fred says. A lightweight battery-powered tracking device is being developed for the birds to wear, enabling researchers to pinpoint their daily movements and migration routes.
“Whenever that’s accomplished, we’ll have a heap of new insights and learn just how much we didn’t know,” he says, grinning.
More information is at Hummingbirds with Fred Bassett, Summer and Winter, on YouTube and at hummingbirdresearch.net.
Flying Feats
In Lakeland, Florida, a male ruby-throated hummingbird Fred Bassett banded January 24, 2014, was located four years later in Canada. A bird bander found it May 27, 2018, in Utopia, New Brunswick—a trek of 1,700 miles. It was the first wintering ruby-throated hummingbird found at its breeding area.
A female rufous hummingbird set the record of 3,500 miles for banding and recapture—from Tallahassee, Florida, to Chenega Bay, Alaska. Fred Dietrich banded her January 13, 2010, in Florida. Five months later, June 28, 2010, she was found by fellow bander Kate McLaughlin in Alaska.
Visit www.hummingbirdresearch.net under the hot news tab to learn more.