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Anna’s Hummingbird photo by Lisa Meyers Swanson
Cathedral Rock photo by Beth Kingsley Hawkins
Hummingbird Banding Demonstrations
Each year the Sedona Hummingbird Festival has featured hummingbird banding demonstrations led by a team of licensed master hummingbird banders. Hummingbirds are carefully caught and fitted with a tiny, uniquely numbered band around the leg. The birds are examined, measured, and released unharmed. The data collected is submitted to the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory and the Arizona Game and Fish Department. This data is a permanent record available to other researchers.
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The hummingbird band weighing about six ten-thousandths of a gram, individualizes a bird, much like a social security number. Whenever a bird is re-encountered it can provide researchers information about the population, site fidelity, migration, and longevity.
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Since 2012, banding at the Sedona Hummingbird Festival has given a good picture of the resident and migrant hummingbirds in Sedona. Visitors may see Anna’s, Black-chinned, Rufous, Broad-tailed, and Calliope Hummingbirds. More rare species such as Costa’s, Rivoli’s and Broad-billed Hummingbirds might also be seen.
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Our dedicated and longtime hummingbird banding site hosts provide an array of hummingbird nectar plants and feeders to attract hundreds of hummingbirds daily. This is a wonderful opportunity to see an abundance of hummingbirds up close, doing what hummingbirds do as they compete for food in a natural environment. A careful observer may see hummingbirds catching insects, feeding from flowers and then jockeying for space at feeders, all in a matter of moments.
Banding Demonstrations Dates & Times:
Friday, July 28 – 7 a.m. - 11 a.m. – Armstrong Home
Saturday, July 29 – 7 a.m. - 11 a.m. – Hemingway Home
Sunday, July 30 – 7 a.m. -11 a.m. – Hemingway Home
Locations and directions will be provided upon registration.
Led by Steve Bouricius (Master Bander), this year’s team of professional master hummingbird banders/researchers will include:
Deb Bouricius (Master Bander); Peaceful Valley, Colorado
Scott Rashid (master bander); Estes Park, Colorado
Kate McLaughlin, Cordova, Alaska
(Above) A very pleasant surprise at the 2022 Sedona Hummingbird Festival! A Rivoli x Black-chinned hybrid. Photo by Scott Rashid (Master Bander)
(Above) Steve Bouricius placing hummingbird in attendee's hand. Amazing experience!
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(Below) Steve Bouricius giving a hummingbird a quick drink.
(Below) Scott Rashid recording his findings. Photo - Hilary Morejon
(Above) Male Anna's and Male Calliope hummingbird
Hummingbird Banding Presenter Profiles
Steve and Deb Bouricius
Steve and Deb Bouricius are engaged in multi-faceted studies of hummingbirds including a 15 year study of Black-chinned Hummingbirds nesting in their apple orchard. Steve is a master bird bander with 23 years of experience banding hummingbirds and dippers. He has led a team of hummingbird banders at the Sedona Hummingbird Festival since 2012.
In 2001, Steve and Deb were first in the nation to earn hummingbird bander certification by the North American Banding Council. They later certified as hummingbird banding trainers. They are licensed by the U.S. Geological Survey Bird Banding Laboratory, Colorado Parks & Wildlife, and Arizona Game and Fish Department.
Steve has conducted field trips, seminars, presentations and banding demonstrations for thousands of people over the years. He is a past president of the Colorado Field Ornithologists and served on the board of directors for nine years.
Steve and Deb have banded 13 species of hummingbirds in the United States, and 11 species in Colorado. In 2009, Steve and Deb hosted the Hummingbird Research Group Conference which brought together 35 hummingbird banders from across North America. In three morning sessions, 1568 hummingbirds of three species were banded.
Deb Bouricius is a lifelong bird watcher who has banded hummingbirds since 1999. She is the Senior Business Systems Analyst for the 20th Judicial District Attorney in Boulder, Colorado. Deb has developed the sophisticated database programs which keep track of their banding and nest observations. She has designed a user-friendly key for in-hand identification of hummingbirds which combines much of the knowledge in current literature. Debbie is also an avid gardener who enjoys planting for hummingbirds.
Scott Rashid
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Scott Rashid is an artist, researcher, bird rehabilitator, bird bander, author and the director of a nonprofit, the Colorado Avian Research and rehabilitation Institute or CARRI for short.
In 1992 he received his state and federal banding permits and two years later was asked to create a bird banding program near Estes Park, Colorado. In 2014, Scott and his volunteers banded their 10,000th bird there.
In 1994, he became a licensed bird rehabilitator, and began taking care of injured birds. Through his rehabilitation efforts, he has taken care of eagles, falcons, owls, and hawks as well as songbirds, hummingbirds and covids of all kinds, returning hundreds of injured and orphaned birds back to the wild.
He has an extensive knowledge of and love of owls. Beginning with an owl nesting research project in hopes of increasing the number of Barn Owls to studying the Great Horned owl, to researching the Northern Goshawk , to studying Long-eared owls, Northern Pygmy Owls, American kestrels, and the Northern Saw-Whet Owl.
The first book he published was called “Small Mountain Owls:; a natural history study about the Northern Pygmy Owl, the Northern Saw-Whet, the Flammulated and Boreal Owls. This was followed by “the Great Horned Owl: an in-depth study;”
“the Northern Goshawk: the Gray Ghost;”
“Exploring the World of the Barn Owl: an intimate look into their secretive lives;”
“American Kestrel: the Diminutive Raptor,”
and “The Northern Saw-whet Owl: the deep woods Gnome”, all including many of his superb illustrations and photographs.
Kate McLaughlin
Currently based in Cordova, Kate McLaughlin has been a resident of Alaska since 1998 and began working with hummingbirds in 2007 on Evan’s Island in remote Prince William Sound. After receiving her Master Hummingbird Banding certification in 2015, Kate created the Alaska Hummingbird Project, Inc., a 501 c (3) scientific and educational non-profit organization. When not chasing hummingbirds, Kate spends her time birding and foraging in the woods for berries and mushrooms. When the weather is too rough to play outside, she enjoys drinking tea and trying to write with a cat on her lap.