Banding demonstrations began biweekly in mid-May

Alice Madar, the executive director of the Sedona-based International Hummingbird Society, said her favorite part of the annual Hummingbird Festival was the hummingbird breakfast.

It had discontinued a few years after she first started attending about 12 years ago.

After she became the executive director almost three years ago, she wanted to bring it back.

“You are in a beautiful local hummingbird garden surrounded by dozens or more hummingbirds while you’re having a light breakfast,” she said.

Vendor registration and tickets for individual festival events opened Friday, May 1, at sedonahummingbirdfestival.com.

The tickets for the breakfasts, which are on Friday, July 24, from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m., are $40, but entry to the festival itself is free.

“No need to purchase tickets to visit our Marketplace shops,” the website reads. “Enjoy Saturday’s Kids Day activities, watch hummingbirds at the feeders, vote for your favorite photo at the Photo Contest display, purchase hummingbird plants at our Plant Sale, or grab a bite at our food concession.”

Last year was highly successful, she said, because the festival happened to coincide with the peak migration period for hummingbirds in 2025. This year’s festival is set for Friday to Sunday, July 24 to 26.

“Peak migration used tobe mid-August,” Madar said. “People used to say, ‘why don’t you have the hummingbird festival in August?’ Well, for one thing, there’s a couple of other big festivals in southeastern Arizona, but also, we rent space at the high school, and so we have to have to do it before high school starts.”

Other events taking place throughout the festival are hummingbird banding and releasing.

Banding

Hilary Morejon, a federally certified hummingbird bander, showcases her craft at the Page Springs Fish Hatchery every other Saturday in migration season. This year, she began these demonstrations May 23. She will also put on demonstrations at the festival.

“We will age and sex and take measurements of the species of hummingbird and we place the bands on their ankle,” she said. “It’s a one-letter, five-number serial number for them and once we’re done doing all we need to do with that bird we’ll take somebody who wants to release them and we’ll have them hold their hand very still and flat with their fingers kind of stretched back.”

The hummingbird is placed in the hand before it flies back off into the wild.

“Sometimes they’ll go in two seconds and sometimes they’ll just sit for a little second and I like that for the person because then they get to feel their heartbeat,” Morejon said.

“Everybody who I’ve talked to who experiences that says it’s life changing,” Madar said. “It’s so fast, it felt like a toy motor.”

She said the releasing is mostly done to track migration patterns and identify birds that might return to a place.

Speakers

The festival will also host a myriad of speakers who will touch a variety of topics relating to hummingbirds around the world.

“Dr. Juan Bahamón, and he lives in Ecuador, and has a sanctuary in Ecuador, and he’s coming, he’s actually going to speak on humans and hummingbirds,” Madar said.

That talk will include the “sad” history of hummingbirds as decorative items for humans and mythology surrounding the bird.

“They used to capture them and just place them on ladies hats,” she said.

“Even now in Mexico, they capture and kill them and hang them on a string, and they call it a Chuparosa, a love charm. That’s black market. It’s illegal because they’re under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.”

Other presentations will include hummingbird photography with Steve Vaughan and Carole Turek, hummingbird gardens with Tabar Gifford, conservation efforts and climate change impacts along with several others throughout the three-day event.

Visit sedonahummingbirdfestival.com for more information, the full schedule and tickets.