Ruby-throated Hummingbird migration nears peak – Port Isabel-South Padre Press

By JAVIER GONZALEZ

My name is Javier Gonzalez, I am the Naturalist Educator at the South Padre Island Birding Nature Center & Alligator Sanctuary and an avid local birder.  I’m excited to bring you this new weekly column in effort to showcase SPI as the incredible birding hotspot that it is and bring some focus to the amazing bird diversity that can be seen on the Island as the seasons change in the year.

Hopefully, I can inspire some readers to pick up birding, see the natural wonder that is SPI in a different way, feel the need to plant a tree or preserve habitat to benefit bird life.

There’s no better time to start than migration time! Fall migration is ramping up with its peak happening in late September and early October. This week, we are entering peak Ruby-throated Hummingbird migration. Hordes of Ruby-throats will be passing through on their way to the southern tropics for the winter. In the fall, the greater majority do not cross the gulf as they do in the spring, but rather migrate over land.

You can help them by providing native plants with red or tubular flowers such as Turk’s Cap, Scarlet Sage and Yellow Sophora.

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