The Sedona Hummingbird Festival will return to the Sedona Performing Arts Center at 995 Upper Red Rock Loop Road from Friday, July 28, through Sunday, July 30.
The exhibition hall will be open from 8 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and until 4:30 p.m. on Sunday.
The festival is sponsored by the International Hummingbird Society, a Sedona-based nonprofit founded in 1996, which states that its mission is “education and conservation on behalf of hummingbirds,” and that “the purpose of the festival is to teach about hummingbirds and work to protect endangered species.”
The festival will offer opportunities for watching hummingbird banding demonstrations, joining garden tours, birding trips and a gala banquet. While live birds of prey will be available for viewing at SPAC along with the Hummingbird Marketplace and paid educational presentations, the only opportunities for live hummingbird viewing will take place during paid bird banding workshops, garden tours and early morning birding trips.
“You get to see an array of different hummingbirds in one area [on the tours], festival manager Hilary Joy Morejon said. “It’s a good chance for people to make new friends who share this interest, to learn about other birds with the birding tours, to educate yourself, and to start appreciating hummingbirds more, because education creates appreciation.”
A food and gelato truck will be available for lunch on Friday and Saturday, with another food truck serving on Sunday.
The annual celebration coincides with the arrival of several species of migratory hummingbirds that pass through Sedona on their way to southern Mexico for the winter. Sedona sees a noticeable increase in the number of hummingbirds during this time; only two species are year-round residents.
“There are migratory species of hummingbird and that’s why we have the festival around late July,” Morejon said. “You start to see the rufous, the broadtailed, the calliope and the black-chinned hummingbirds making their way south.”
Banding hummingbirds is one of the major tools that researchers use to track their migration. Festival attendees will have the opportunity to watch and perhaps participate in the process by joining one of the daily banding demonstrations taking place from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. The online registration cost is $30 per participant. Locations for banding demonstrations will be handed out after payment is received and the locations are not handicap-accessible.
A variety of experts will be present on all three days to give talks covering aspects of hummingbirds ranging from art to zoology. Presentations will start at 9:30 a.m. and run until 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and until 3:45 p.m. on Sunday.
A three-day pass for all the presentations can be preordered for $135 or a one-day pass for $60; registration to watch the presentations at a later time is $75.
For birders who want to get out in the field to observe wild hummingbirds, there are garden or birding trips available for $30 per participant if purchased online.
These self-guided tours will be open between 9 a.m and 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
The Northern Arizona Audubon Society has also added early morning birding tours along the Jail Trail in Cottonwood and Red Rock Loop, Windmill Park and Fish Hatchery Butterfly Garden and the Amitabha Stupa in Sedona. Tours are capped at 12 participants, depart from SPAC at 6:30 a.m. and return at 8:45 a.m. These tours are not handicap-accessible.
“This year we have a delectable menu for Saturday evening’s Gala Banquet at the Poco Diablo Resort,” the festival’s website states. “We would love to have you all join us as we share the evening meeting those involved with the festival such as staff, presenters, banders, exhibitors and more.”
The gala will take place on Saturday, July 29, from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.; tickets are $98 per person. Meal options are steak, salmon or vegetarian.
Proceeds from the event will go toward supporting avian conservation in northern Arizona and abroad.
“We partnered with American Bird Conservancy,” Morejon said. “We’re raising money for the endangered marvelous spatuletail. The conservation site is in northern Peru. We’re trying to garnish as many donations for that as possible. We have that also on our website if people want to learn more about that bird and its environment and what’s being done to help.”
Tickets can be prepurchased at a discounted rate until Friday, July 21, at hummingbirdsociety.org. Gala tickets can only be purchased through the website. Questions can be directed to info@hummingbirdsociety.org or (928) 284-2251.
