‘Flying jewels’: Naperville man has seen 237 species of hummingbirds

This month I’m heading to southeast Arizona in pursuit of birds — hummingbirds, in particular. It’s the best time of year for it, despite the heat. I hope to raise my hummingbird life list to 14 or 15 species.

Don’t be impressed. Today you’ll meet a guy who has seen 237.

Denis Kania is fairly obsessed with hummingbirds. The 70-year-old Naperville resident retired in 2018 after 18 years managing natural areas for the St. Charles Park District. Since then — and really since 1996, when he first traveled to South America — he’s been keen on the family of birds known for their brilliant iridescence, enchanting names, and mesmerizing flight.

Often called “flying jewels,” it’s only fitting that more than 50 hummingbirds bear the name of a gemstone.

The family totals 367 species, all residing in the Western Hemisphere. You won’t find hummers in Africa, Asia, Australia or Europe.

“I don’t have dreams of seeing them all,” Kania told me recently, and he doubts that anyone has or ever will. But it’s a safe bet that few people have seen more varieties of hummingbirds than Kania.

Fewer than 20 species breed in or occasionally visit the United States and Canada. Just one, Ruby-throated, is common east of the Mississippi River.

To experience great numbers of hummingbirds, you must travel. Kania travels a lot, organizing and leading trips around the world in partnership with Field Guides, a leading birding tour operator. He’s been to 30 countries, building a life list of well over 5,000 birds.

Ecuador — home to about 132 species, according to the Hummingbird Central website — is a favorite destination. Kania has birded the country 10 times, most recently in 2018. On that trip he observed a head-spinning 65 different hummers, but none were new to his life list.

In April, Kania went hummingbird hunting in Cuba for the first time. He had two targets and located them both: Bee Hummingbird — the world’s smallest bird at 2-and-a-quarter inches long, bill included — and Cuban Emerald. Both are island endemics.

Costa Rica, Colombia and Peru are sweet spots, too. Kania will head to Peru for the third time in 2026 with a wish list of 10 species, the most coveted being Marvelous Spatuletail. The latter, highly endangered and restricted to a small zone in the Andes, is best known for its long tail feathers with “rackets” at their tips.

When asked about the rarest hummingbird he’s ever seen, Kania recalled a Black-breasted Puffleg observed in Ecuador in 2002. Fewer than 200 individuals are believed to exist in the wild. Unfortunately, about 10% of all hummingbird species are classified endangered; leading threats are climate change, habitat loss, and pesticide use.

On a happier note, you can visit certain eco-lodges in Central and South America and watch a nice variety of hummers as you relax on the veranda and sip good coffee. Nectar feeders are arranged just for that purpose. But those are the “easy” species. Not all hummingbirds visit feeders, Kania notes, and some exist only in remote, hard-to-reach places. Even if you get there, nothing is guaranteed.

Kania gained three species on his last visit to Costa Rica, in 2023. One of them, Mangrove Hummingbird, proved an exercise in frustration. Three boat rides into the mangrove swamps produced views of the little whizzer, but none very satisfying.

As watchers know, some birds allow us better looks than others. We take what they give us.

Hummingbirds are giving Kania a lot, and he’s thankful. The scintillating birds, and his travels, clearly bring him joy. He’s excited about the chance to reach species number 250 next year, with the Peru trip and another to Dominican Republic already booked.

Reaching 300 species in his lifetime, Kania admitted, would be a stretch.

“The problem is it gets harder and harder to find places where you have concentrations of hummingbirds,” he said. “Most of the trips I have in my future will result in only one or two new species.”

Kania is a teacher at heart, happy to share his knowledge about birds and birding. He instructs at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle (going on 30 years) and is active with the DuPage Birding Club. He gives popular lectures on hummingbirds that cover the family’s amazing diversity, including colors, sizes, feeding strategies, and habitats.

During the pandemic, Kania launched a series of “mini-tutorials” on the bird club’s YouTube channel. One is about enjoying hummingbirds at home. To watch, go to dupagebirding.org or search Attracting Hummingbirds on YouTube/DuPage Birding Club.

Now is an excellent time to hang a feeder as our local population of Ruby-throated hummingbirds peaks before fall migration. Backyard feeders with fresh sugar-water help the birds build energy for their journeys to the southern U.S., Mexico and Central America.

• Jeff Reiter’s column appears regularly in Neighbor. You can reach him via his blog, Words on Birds.

Bird notes

• The second annual Urban Birding Festival takes place Sept. 12-14 in Chicago. Learn more and register at theurbanbirdingfestival.org.
• Don’t miss “Winging It: A Brief History of Humanity’s Relationship with Birds,” a free exhibit at Chicago’s Newberry Library, through Sept. 27.
• “The Best of Words on Birds” is now on sale! You can order a copy at EckhartzPress.com or stop by my table at the Urban Birding fest. I’ll also be speaking and signing books at Cantigny Park on Sept. 4.

— Jeff Reiter