Bruce Farr had a rare visitor, a white hummingbird, and it caused quite a stir among people interested in birds.

Farr, who lives in Maple Valley, is an avid bird watcher. He enjoys feeding birds and he has numerous hummingbird feeders around his home.

“I see hummingbirds all year round,” Farr said. “I have pictures of them in snowstorms. They will feed in the dead of winter.”

During the past couple weeks Farr said he began seeing the white hummingbird at his feeders.

After a search on Google and a few e-mail exchanges he called the Rainier Audubon Society based in Auburn.

“Everybody got excited,” Farr said.

He was led to Mark Myers, the bird curator for the Woodland Park Zoo. Myers came to Farr’s home Aug. 19 to photograph and band the bird, which is a leucistic Anna’s hummingbird.

Myers said Anna’s hummingbirds are common around the Puget Sound area, but a leucistic Anna’s or a white hummingbird is rare.

“Leucistic birds are uncommon,” Myers said. “Typically they don’t survive long because they stick out like a sore thumb to predators. It makes them more visible.”

Myers noted leucistic birds have some colors, “it does have some melanin (color pigment) in its body, but there is an impairment in the feathers to deposit melanin.”

Male Anna’s hummingbirds have rose or reddish heads and bronze-green backs and females have green backs and darker heads.

According to Myers, 47, the leucistic bird is not an albino or pure white bird. He said an albino bird is even more rare than a leucistic. Myers, who became interested in watching and working with birds at 14 years old, has never seen a leucistic Anna’s hummingbird.

Along with being curator of birds at the zoo, Myers is a federally licensed bird bander with a “special amendment for banding hummingbirds.”

Myers said he learned banding from Bob Sargent of the Hummer/Bird Study Group in Birmingham, Ala. Sargent was one of the first field ornithologists who began banding hummingbirds over 20 years ago.

“The reason why we band is to get a better understanding of the movements, age and sex of the birds,” Myers said. “By banding we hope to connect the dots and get a better understanding of the local and regional movements.”

Myers said a hummingbird was recaptured this year in the Pacific Northwest. The bird had been banded last year in New Orleans.

The banding data Myers collects is sent back to the federal U.S. Geological Survey Bird Banding Laboratory at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Maryland.

Through banding information Myers said scientists know a rufous female hummingbird will live about 9-10 years, while a male lives about 4-5 years.

“Male hummingbirds are built to be ornery,” Myers said. “They are built to breed, feed and defend territory. They don’t help raise offspring. They breed as many females as possible.”

Myers said hummingbirds have very few “avian predators” probably because they fly about 30 mph and can reach speeds over 50 mph. A hummingbird beats its wings about 40-80 times per second.

A typical Anna’s hummingbird weighs about four grams. Myers said to give perspective, about four hummingbirds could be mailed with one postage stamp.

When Myers banded the luecistic Anna’s hummingbird at Farr’s home he followed a scientific procedure developed over years of study.

“There are people who think the birds are traumatized,” Myers said. “That is not the case. They are nervous, but it is like us going to the doctor. We are nervous, but we come back alive.”

Myers said banding birds is a “very old science, but hummingbirds are a newer art.”

He said a bander must be very careful with any bird captured and especially with hummingbirds. The birds have no diaphragm and breath by their “through the movement of their keel bone, which goes in and out. If you grab the bird and the keel bone can’t go in and out it will suffocate. We handle it like a little cigar with almost no pressure.”

Myers uses a square wire-mesh trap with a hummingbird feeder inside. He holds the door open with a fishing line.

“It is surprisingly simple,” Myers said. “Most (hummingbirds) don’t even hesitate to enter the trap.”

Once trapped the birds are removed and taken to the banding table. At the banding table Myers determines the age and sex of the hummingbird.

For the age, Myers said he examines the top of the bill with a magnifying glass. If the top part is wrinkly or corrugated the bird is young. When the bird becomes an adult the bill is smooth.

Myers determined the luecistic Anna’s hummingbird at Farr’s home was a female “hatched possibly in the last month or so.”

The sex is determined by the color of the tail feathers and coloring on the head with adults.

Myers than takes a series of measurements and weighs the bird. He then “blows on the feathers to determine if they are molting and we look for fat.”

Birds store fat around the wishbone when preparing to migrate. Myers said a bird’s skin is “thin and transparent” and the yellow colored fat is easy to spot.

According to Myers, Anna’s hummingbirds appear to stay in this area all year. Rufous hummingbirds breed in the Pacific Northwest, but migrate to Mexico and the southeast part of the United States. Ruby-throated hummingbirds migrate to Central America.

“They lay down almost double their body mass,” Myers said. “I’ve banded some (hummingbirds) that look like little butterballs.”

Farr said once the young bird was captured at his home, “it was almost like she was tame. She sat in my hand. It was a fun experience.”

After weighing and checking the fat deposits, Myers photographs the birds then lets them go.

Myers said the leucistic Anna’s hummingbird at Farr’s home took a drink while she sat in their hands before flying away.

Myers said hummingbirds do not hibernate and are tolerant of very cold temperatures. He said the birds go into a torpor or “suspended animation” during the winter nights to save energy. During daytime the birds begin feeding again.

Hummingbirds commonly feed on flower nectar, however the birds also feed heavily on little bugs especially during the breeding season. Myers said hummingbirds will go to spider webs to catch small bugs and they will also catch insects in midair like a flycatcher.

Myers said hummingbirds raise a lot of emotions in people because the little birds have “a lot of personality. They are always squabbling among themselves. They are one of the more enjoyable birds in the field. They will come right up to us.”

To learn more about hummingbirds Myers suggested this Web site, Hummer/Bird Study Group at www.hummingbirdsplus.org

Reach Dennis Box at dbox@maplevalleyreporter.com or (425)432-1209 ext. 5050.