Greenfield native Zeke Jakub describes his search to learn the secrets of the glow-throated hummingbird, one of Panama’s rarest and endangered native birds, at the Hampshire Bird Club’s meeting today. The meeting, which is free and open to the public, begins at 6:45 p.m. in the Immanuel Lutheran Church at 867 North Pleasant St., Amherst.
Over the past year, Jakub, director of ornithology at U.S. based Conservación Panamá Inc., has traveled to remote areas in western Panama. He said the search has sent him “traveling in the cloud forests and semi-paramo highland habitat by horseback for days at a time, braving extreme inclement weather, raging rivers and high winds.”
Very little research on the tiny bird, known as “Pica flor,” has been done and very little is known about its life history, Jakub said. The iridescent green hummingbird with a pink throat and distinctive black tail has been seen only a handful of times in recent years.
More information on: hampshirebirdclub.org