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REMARKABLE RETURNS OF RUBY-THROATS AND A WARBLER

#37: 22 April thru 05 May 2026

"This Week At Hilton Pond North" is an on-going series of original photo essays—posted more or less weekly—about natural history happenings here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of upper Ashe County, North Carolina. If you want a free e-mail reminder about each new installment, click here to SUBSCRIBE.

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Random observations about Blue Ridge Birds & Nature

● Banded in 2026: 30 species, 1,460 individuals

● All-time (2024-present) totals: 71 species, 4,638 individuals

The table below shows birds banded during the Current Period (Columns 1 & 2), each species' Yearly Tally (Column 3), and a Grand Total for each species (Column 4) since banding began at Hilton Pond North on 10 March 2024. Any new species for the current calendar year are in RED.

BANDED BIRD RECAPTURES/RETURNS

AT HILTON POND NORTH

22 April thru 5 May 2026

SUMMARY: The latest two-week period (late April thru early May 2026) brought several interesting recaptures and returns. Birds in RED are in at least their fourth year. An American Goldfinch marked (*) and banded in August is likely a non-migrant local breeder, of which we have few. A Hooded Warbler banded in May 2025 and three Ruby-throated Hummingbirds from previous years are later-year returns of true Neotropical migrants, demonstrating site fidelity on likely breeding grounds. Later-year female recaptures of several species had prominent brood patches indicating active local nesting.

NOTE: List does not include our MANY same-season recaptures, some of which are same-week or same-day.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird banded here 08/25/24; now 3rd year female

Ruby-throated Hummingbird banded here 07/25/25; now 2nd year male

Ruby-throated Hummingbird banded here 09/04/25; now 2nd year male

NOTE: RTHU are true long-distance migrants that depart Hilton Pond North for Mexico or Central America.

Carolina Chickadee banded here 10/13/24; now after 2nd year male

Carolina Chickadee banded here 10/21/24; now after 2nd year male

Carolina Chickadee banded here 12/08/24; now 3rd year male

Carolina Chickadee banded here 12/30/24; now after 2nd year female

Carolina Chickadee banded here 09/18/25; now 2nd year female

NOTE: Since CACH are non-migratory, it's likely all are year-round residents produced locally or near Hilton Pond North. CACH dispersal after hatch is generally less than 2.5 miles. And since CACH are sexually monomorphic, they can be sexed only in breeding condition (males with cloacal protuberances, females with brood patches)

American Goldfinch banded here 03/14/24; now 4th year male

American Goldfinch banded here 03/29/24; now after 4th year female

American Goldfinch banded here 08/26/24; now 4th year male *

American Goldfinch banded here 10/17/24; now after 3rd year male

American Goldfinch banded here 12/10/24; now 3rd year male

American Goldfinch banded here 04/27/25; now 3rd year female

NOTE: The AMGO marked (*) from August is likely a non-migratory local resident at Hilton Pond North; others are possible/likely migrants

Hooded Warbler banded here 05/08/25; now 3rd year male

NOTE: HOWA are true long-distance migrants that depart Hilton Pond North for Mexico, Central America, or the Caribbean.

Northern Cardinal banded here 03/23/25; now 3rd year male

Northern Cardinal banded here 08/04/25; now 2nd year male

NOTE: NOCA are year-round residents and breeders at Hilton Pond North. Fledglings may disperse up to three miles, occasionally thrice that. Midwinter migrants from further north have not been documented from our latitude.

Tufted Titmouse banded here 03/27/24; now after 3rd year male

Tufted Titmouse banded here 09/01/24; now 3rd year male

Tufted Titmouse banded here 09/05/24; now 3rd year male

Tufted Titmouse banded here 03/28/25; now after 2nd year female

Tufted Titmouse banded here 07/01/25; now 2nd year male

Tufted Titmouse banded here 09/25/25; now 2nd year unknown

NOTE: This species likely shows similar dispersal to CACH (see above) around Hilton Pond North. And since TUTI are sexually monomorphic, like CACH they can be sexed only in breeding condition.

White-breasted Nuthatch banded here 10/24/24; now 3rd year male

White-breasted Nuthatch banded here 11/19/24; now 3rd year male

NOTE: This species shows similar fledgling dispersal to CACH (see above) and may be even more restrictive with dispersal less than a mile of Hilton Pond North.

Carolina Wren banded here 10/08/24; now after 2nd year female

Carolina Wren banded here 10/13/24; now after 2nd year female

NOTE: This is a permanent resident species at Hilton Pond North, with fledgling dispersal likely less than a mile. And since CARW are sexually monomorphic, they can be sexed only in breeding condition

Blue Jay banded here 11/19/24; now after 3rd year unknown

Blue Jay banded here 05/07/25; now 3rd year unknown

NOTE: This is a permanent resident species at Hilton Pond North, but fledgling dispersal could be as much as 25 miles—or further. Local recaptures are uncommon. And since BLJA are sexually monomorphic, they can be sexed only in breeding condition.

Mourning Dove banded here 06/13/25; now after 2nd year male

NOTE: This is a permanent resident species at Hilton Pond North, but fledgling dispersal could be as much as 25 miles—or even far further. Local recaptures are uncommon.

If you missed our 2025 Ruby-throated Hummingbird Banding Summary, it's still posted HERE.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

BIRD BANDING RESULTS FOR

HILTON POND NORTH DURING CURRENT PERIOD

22 April thru 5 May 2026

All banding at Hilton Pond North is done by Dr. Bill Hilton Jr. (federal master permit #21558) under auspices of the U.S. Bird Banding Laboratory and NC Wildlife Resources Commission, following standard humane procedures for capturing, handling, banding, and releasing wild birds.

NEWLY BANDED BIRDS

AT HILTON POND NORTH

22 April thru 5 May 2026

Hilton Pond North's Bird & Nature Cams are up and running; turn on "Sound" to hear bird calls. Click on the name YouTube in the image above to access our 24/7 channel; there you can subscribe to the livestream and stay abreast of exciting year-round Nature Cam happenings in upper Ashe County NC, the heart of the Blue Ridge Province. (Current temperature also shows up, and sometimes you'll see snow, rain, or fog; thus, the livestream also serves as a weather cam!)

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

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Apple Podcast #37

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

Photos & text by Dr. Bill Hilton Jr.

Executive Director, Hilton Pond North: Blue Ridge Birds & Nature

SUMMARY: Spring migration continued in late April and early May at Hilton Pond North, with most of the last wintering birds departing and migrants from down south starting to appear. The period was mildly productive (103 bandings) as our winter horde of American Goldfinches dwindled; we still banded 36 of them, followed by 23 Purple Finches. We captured four new species for the calendar year: Female Ruby-crowned Kinglet; Rose-breasted Grosbeak (males and females); five nestling Eastern Bluebirds banded in a nest box (our first evidence for that species breeding on-site, and we also caught both parents); plus our first local banding of a Pine Warbler. Details as follows:

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The 24th of April 2026 was a big day for Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (RTHU) at Hilton Pond North, with the capture of our first female of the season (above).

—More important: She was already banded.

—More important than that: We also captured her last year on 15 Jun 2025.

—And most important: She was actually banded as a recent fledgling on 25 August 2024!

That means this particular hummer has made two long-distance round trips to the Neotropics and back AND returned to the exact same spot in upper Ashe County. She is now in her third year and going strong.

Almost as remarkable as this "old" female being on-site three years in a row were the returns of two male RTHU (above) on 1-2 May, both captured last year as hatch-year. The first was banded on 25 July and the second on 4 September. In our 41 years of working with ruby-throats in York SC it was very unusual for a young bird banded in September to return in a later year. (Speculation: Perhaps some of these were late fledglings that perished because they did not have sufficient time to strengthen, develop, and fatten up before undertaking their arduous first migration.)

In 2025—our second year working here with hummingbirds—we had a remarkable 34 ruby-throat returns; this was 22% of the 154 banded in 2024. (We never had more than ~12% in SC.) We look forward in 2026 to seeing what kind of return rate we get from our two previous banding seasons. (We banded 176 in 2025.) Since the longevity record for Ruby-throated Hummingbirds is more than nine years, it's possible these individuals will return to Hilton Pond North for many seasons to come. What remarkable displays of precise site fidelity for birds the size of your thumb!

We had one other later-year return on 2 May, a very different species that likely made a similar long-distance migration flight to that of our Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. This was a third-year male Hooded Warbler (HOWA, above), banded almost exactly a year earlier on 8 May 2025 at Hilton Pond North. Evidence was strong that this individual is a local breeder: At both captures he had a prominent cloacal protuberance—a sure sign he was ready to mate. (NOTE: The protuberance is a swelling around the cloacal opening where sperm collects for easy transfer during copulation. It is present only during the breeding season.)

The cold-weather range for Hooded Warbler and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds is quite similar: Southern Mexico and nearly all of Central America, with HOWA also occurring in the Caribbean. The latter are known to migrate north across the Gulf of Mexico in spring but overland through Mexico in fall—a path that many ornithologists believe is also followed by ruby-throats. Newly developed ultra-lightweight Motus tags attached to RTHU transmit intermittent radio signals that may finally answer migration route questions for this species—and others. Here at Hilton Pond North we have a small Motus antenna attached to our Terra monitoring system. It would be the thrill of an ornithological lifetime for us to "ping" a migrating ruby-throat.

(NOTE: This week we also had many recaptures of non-migratory species banded locally in previous years. These are listed by banding date and current age in a section below.)

Among the smallest of North American passerines, the female Ruby-crowned Kinglet (RCKI, above) banded this week at Hilton Pond North is a study in hyperactivity. She sports olive-green plumage, with bold white wing bars and a distinctive broken eye ring. She lacks the male's scarlet crown patch entirely, but her restless, wing-flicking behavior and habit of hovering briefly to glean insects from foliage help make her identifiable in the field even without that field mark. This was our only banded RCKI of the winter.

Few spring migrants announce themselves quite as dramatically as the male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, (RBGR, above), his jet-black hood and back contrasting sharply white wing bars and a brilliant rose-red triangle blazing across his white breast. His massive pale bill is built for cracking hard seeds—or big beetles. He's an accomplished singer with a rich, rolling song that early naturalists compared to the American Robin—with more harmonics. At Hilton Pond North we seldom hear RBGR sing (they probably breed in Ashe County at higher elevation than our 3,000') but are alerted to their presence by a distinctive call note—a sharp, high-pitched eek or squeak often sounding like a sneaker sole squeaking on a gym floor.

A female Rose-breasted Grosbeak (above) is superficially sparrow-like—heavily streaked brown and buff above and below—but her size, that same oversized pale bill as the male, and a strong white supercilium (eye line) help separate her from confusion species in the field. She resembles a brown Purple Finch on steroids. She's easily overlooked at a feeding station amid more colorful companions but shares her mate's rich song that sometimes catches birders off guard when the music comes from what appears to be a large, drab finch. So far this spring at Hilton Pond North we've banded three male RBGR and seven females.

We typically band nestling Eastern Bluebirds (EABL) at around 10–12 days post-hatch—old enough that the primary sheaths (above) are well erupted and a reliable age estimate is possible but young enough that premature fledging won't occur. The band they carry from that early life stage becomes invaluable years later when a recaptured EABL reveals its exact age. Five nestlings banded this week were our first-ever for Hilton Pond North. (A few days later we captured both parents. We banded two more adults last spring.)

The female Pine Warbler (PIWA) is one of the most subtly plumaged wood-warblers, with olive-brown tones above and dull whitish-buff below, plus faint wing bars that help clinch identification when coupled with a bill noticeably larger than most warblers. This latest individual (above) was especially pale; unlike their mates, females often show little yellow coloration. True to their, name Pine Warblers are pine specialists year-round, foraging methodically along bark and through needle clusters. In addition to being the first PIWA banded at Hilton Pond North, this week's bird was also the first of her species observed locally—bringing our "Yard List" to 92 (of which 71 have been banded).

Birds weren't the only creatures flying about this week at Hilton Pond North; we also had plenty of butterflies. Spicebush and Eastern Tiger Swallowtails were the biggest and most obvious, but we also spotted a little Pearl Crescent, Phyciodes tharos (above), with its inch-and-a-half wingspan, puddling where we watered spring flora in our native plant garden.

One of the most abundant and ubiquitous butterflies in eastern North America, this species ranges from southern Canada south through the entire eastern U.S. and also into Mexico and Central America. It occupies an impressive breadth of open and semi-open habitats—roadsides, meadows, old fields, forest edges, and stream margins—anywhere its larval host plants occur in sufficient density: Native asters, Symphyotrichum spp. Pearl Crescents are "multivoltine" across most of their range, producing 2-3 broods annually in the north and up to four in the south. Adults are on the wing from early spring through late fall and overwinter as mid-instar larvae tucked into leaf litter at the bases of host plants.

Ecologically, Pearl Crescents function as both pollinators of a wide variety of low-growing wildflowers and as significant prey for insectivorous birds, spiders, and invertebrate predators Their abundance makes them a reliable food source in food webs from the shrub layer to the ground. They are also frequently cited in phenological monitoring programs as useful bioindicators because their emergence timing, brood number, and local abundance respond to seasonal temperature shifts. This makes them a very useful species for tracking climate-driven changes.