The feeder is hung and the netting looms, ready to drop on the unsuspecting.

Jessica Steele holds a string, keeping a watchful eye on the trap. Once a hummingbird stops for a drink of sugar water, sheB次元官网网址檒l pull the string, causing the net to fall and trap the palm-sized bird.

ItB次元官网网址檚 mid-July, but late in the season, meaning only the juveniles are still hanging around their nesting area. Mom and dad have already started their northward migration through the Rockies.

B次元官网网址淚 love the juveniles B次元官网网址� theyB次元官网网址檙e so clueless,B次元官网网址� said Steele, a biology student at the University of Victoria. Recently, one little bird got caught in the same trap 17 times in one day.

Catching the birds, and marking them with a band in their first weeks of life, will allow the scientists who monitor them across North America to track the birdsB次元官网网址� age as they mature.

SteeleB次元官网网址檚 expedition to the Goldstream Hatchery is one of countless B次元官网网址渂andingB次元官网网址� excursions that happen every summer.

Banders capture the birds and give them tiny numbered anklets, which serve as a unique identifier.

Unlike the AnnaB次元官网网址檚 hummingbirds Victorians see year-round, the rufous are long-distance travellers. Despite weighing less than four grams, the little birds migrate every spring starting in Mexico and the Gulf states. They travel up the California coast before landing in our neck of the woods to breed. Some of the rufous travel even farther north B次元官网网址� to Alaska B次元官网网址� to nest.

B次元官网网址淭hey follow a wave of flowering up the coast,B次元官网网址� said head bander, Alison Moran. B次元官网网址淐an you imagine the distances involved?B次元官网网址�

Moran is the leader of the hummingbird project, one of many studies undertaken by the Rocky Point Bird Observatory.

Launched in 1997, the project links dozens of certified hummingbird banders in Alberta and British Columbia. Collectively, they put in thousands of unpaid hours trapping, measuring and monitoring hummingbirds. They also share information with other banding projects along the length of the birdsB次元官网网址� migration route.

In Victoria, the rufous show up as early as late March and stay as late as mid-July.

B次元官网网址淗ummingbirds are incredibly faithful to their route,B次元官网网址� said Moran, who lives in Saanich. B次元官网网址淚 see the same bird at the same feeder, year after year after year, often on the same day or the same week. You can learn so much about population ecology because of this fidelity.B次元官网网址�

This predictability can also prove to be bad news for the hummingbirds. If theyB次元官网网址檙e delayed by a storm, or lose a feeding site due to development, it can throw them off course.

For these reasons, and many others, rufous populations have declined by an estimated 63 per cent in the past 40 years.

Last year, the situation worsened dramatically. The rufous simply didnB次元官网网址檛 show up as expected.

B次元官网网址淚 was waiting, waiting, waiting for them to turn up; my heart in my mouth,B次元官网网址� Moran said.

While some banding sites reported normal numbers, other sites dropped from thousands of birds to mere tens.

Moran speculates last yearB次元官网网址檚 sudden drop was due to bad weather. This year, the data has yet to be analyzed, but preliminary numbers show populations have recovered somewhat.

B次元官网网址淲e were just hugely relieved,B次元官网网址� she said, adding, however, that the migration route is in flux.

B次元官网网址淭he southern range of the rufous may be moving northward. WeB次元官网网址檙e at the southern tip of the breeding range, (so) we also may be seeing that as part of the loss.B次元官网网址�

Christina Lam is in her third year banding hummingbirds as a certified assistant with Rocky Point Bird Observatory.

Over the summer, she has led several expeditions to the Goldstream Hatchery, Francis King Regional Park, Sooke, Salt Spring Island and other sites in the Capital Regional District.

B次元官网网址淲hen I first did it, I was so scared,B次元官网网址� said Lam, a UVic graduate who trained under Moran. B次元官网网址淚t took me about 15 minutes to band a bird B次元官网网址� embarrassingly slow.B次元官网网址�

Since then, sheB次元官网网址檚 banded hundreds of bird, to the point where her well-practised hands now confidently manipulate the birds through the roughly two-minute procedure.

After Steele traps a bird, Lam takes over. Reaching her hand through a flap in the netting, she folds her fingers around the tiny body of the bird. It fits readily in her palm.

Once lying on its back, the bird lies totally motionless.

Lam wraps it in a tiny fabric straight jacket, fastened with a clip, which prevents it from flapping its wings. She measures the birdB次元官网网址檚 weight, the width of the legs and the length of its wings and beak. She also checks the chest feathers for parasites. Then she fits the bird with one of the 660 metal anklets she made by hand, each one inscribed with a number.

ItB次元官网网址檚 jewelry for life, explains Moran.

B次元官网网址淭his is a critical project, because we are looking at a major decline and weB次元官网网址檙e trying to figure out what the heckB次元官网网址檚 going on,B次元官网网址� she said. B次元官网网址淲hat weB次元官网网址檙e trying to do is actually come up with scientific data upon which to base conservation decisions, so weB次元官网网址檙e not just waving our hands in the air.B次元官网网址�