Now’s a good time to talk about the Calliope Hummingbird, known to be North America’s smallest breeding bird. It also holds the distinction of being the smallest avian long-distance migrant in the world, traveling back and forth from wintering grounds in southern Mexico to breeding grounds in eastern California, Oregon, Washington, and Canada. That’s a long way to go for a bird that weighs less than three grams, which is less than two paperclips. Like the Rufous Hummingbird, most of the traffic we see during the spring is pass-through, so enjoy the Calliopes while you can. If you look at the maps below, you’ll see that there was only one recorded sighting of Calliope Hummingbird in California in March. But now, about two-thirds of the way through April, we’re seeing them in greater numbers up into Oregon. Check out the eBird maps (below) to see the bigger picture (photo by oldbilluk via Flickr):

Here's the eBird map from the end of March, showing not much action for this species in California, although you can see a few popping up in Arizona:

And then here's a look at the map from today, showing that the birds are popping up in greater numbers now: