Exciting news was received on 12/28/20 when veteran bander and colleague Fred Bassett called me to report he had recaptured a hatch-year male Allen’s Hummingbird wearing one of my bands at a host home on Mobile Bay, Alabama!
Turns out I had banded this very Allen’s hummingbird at the home of Mary Goodenough in Fayetteville, TN on December 8, 2020.
A quick call to Mary Goodenough, confirmed that said Allen’s Hummingbird was spotted and subsequently photographed in her yard in Fayetteville, TN on September 29, 2020 and was there for 10 weeks, departing sometime during the day on December 9, 2020 as that was the last day Mary saw him.
The distance between the two points – Fayetteville and Mobile Bay – is approximately 417 miles almost directly south.
We’ll never truly know the ‘exact’ route, or just how long it took the Allen’s to get to Mobile. What we do know is that his Alabama host first noticed him on Christmas Day and 3 days later Fred Bassett captured him and discovered his band.
We will continue to monitor him in Mobile to see just how long he stays at his ‘beach’ home before leaving to return to his breeding ground along a narrow strip on the Pacific coast from Oregon to California.