Middle Tennessee is a hot spot for hummingbirds

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — One sign the seasons are changing is the millions of birds migrating over the mid-south . Many of those birds, including hummingbirds use Middle Tennessee as a migration gas station to help fuel their trip.

Warner Parks is a bird sanctuary where birds rest and eat along their migration south.

According to biologists, this is the time of year when you can see the most hummingbirds at the park. Every Wednesday morning in September they place bands on the hummingbirds to track their migration and health.

Jenna Atma an avian biologist at Warner Parks said the bird banding gives them invaluable information about the hummingbirds.

“We will be able to catch them between seasons and see their health progression throughout the same season. So if we catch a bird today that we caught two weeks ago and it has gained fat we will know that it is building up its fat stores to get ready for migration. So we can learn a whole lot of things through bird banding,” said Atma.

She said the bands are very small and don’t impact the hummingbird’s ability to fly.

Atma said they are having a hummingbird celebration party on Saturday, September 7, where they will be banding birds in the morning and have crafts, booths, and face painting during the day. The hummingbird celebration will be held at the Warner Parks Nature Center.

She said if you want to help support the bird banding and research you can buy tickets to their hummingbird happy hour. There will be drinks, snacks, and of course hundreds of hummingbirds.

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Atma said the money from the upcoming event helps a lot. “All of the money goes to fully supporting Warner Parks and the bird program. The entire bird research program that we have here and to be able to host these events and do this bird banding it’s all fully funded by Friends of Warner Parks so it goes directly to the bird research.”

Click here for more information about the hummingbird happy hour.

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