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Heads up - Cedar Waxwings/Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Posted by Alex Harper
almost 9 years ago
7 Comments
While packing my car up to head south to see "the" hummingbird this morning, a flock of about 45 Cedar Waxwings flew over my temporary (two month) home near Wynwood.
The Buff-bellied Hummingbird showed well this morning for several SoFla birders. It was good to see some of you all this morning. My good friend I was with was exposed to birding for the first time this morning and mentioned how impressed he was to see so many of us connected by a vagrant bird. Good stuff!
Alex
Comments
Hey Alex, must have just missed you this morning. I left about 930am and already nine birders, including myself, had seen the hummingbird. Also, I had a small flock of 14 Cedar Waxwings at Matheson Hammock Park yesterday when I went to see the Warbling Vireo (still hanging around trail marker 7). Hope to see you out there buddy, it's gonna be a good year.
-RJ
I heard waxwings fly over Deering Estate when I first got into work yesterday. There have also been American Goldfinches in the area. This might shape up to be a productive winter after all!
I saw flocks of American Robins in the East Everglades yesterday, so it looks like all three of the winter irruptives are moving down into the southern end of the peninsula this year.
Interesting conversation, gentlemen. Here is some reading I followed up on:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irruptive_growth
Brian and Rangel aren't referring to irruptive population growth, as in a population boom-bust cycle.
Robins, waxwings, and goldfinches move into peninsular Florida nearly annually in varying numbers. They do not migrate in the traditional sense along set migration routes like shorebirds, raptors, and warblers. Rather, their movements across the country are more closely related to population dynamics and food availability. All three species can sometimes move into southern Florida in spectacular numbers -- an 'irruption'. Currently, it's more of a modest flight.
Since we are so far south, they often never manage to reach the southern tip of the state. That is why these classic North American species are such a treat to the South Florida birder.
Hope this helps,
Carlos
Ah, so it's irruptive migration? After a search with these two key words, I came up with this interesting article:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/inside-the-massive-winter-irruptions-known-as-superflights/
The article above seems to explain that what is actually irruptive in this situation are the trees, and then the birds respond with super flights.
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