Salt Spring’s preeminent hummingbird fan and photographer Bruno Gonzalez recorded the first rufous hummingbird at his Langs Road home on Sunday, March 16 at 4 p.m.
That’s two days before what Gonzalez refers to as the “deadline” for the birds’ annual return — March 18 — which is also his birthday.
Unlike the year-round resident Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna), the rufous (Selasphorus rufus) migrates to Central America or Venezuela during the winter, leaving our region beginning in July.
According to a past submission to the Driftwood from Salt Spring Christmas Bird Count coordinator Tim Marchant, when the rufous return “they rely on early blooming shrubs like salmonberry, red-flowering currant and Salish plum at low elevation for fuel.”
Marchant also noted in that piece that the first Anna’s hummingbird was seen in the 1991 Christmas Bird Count on Salt Spring. For the 2024 event, 190 of the birds were counted.