[mou] Hummingbird ID

[Laura Erickson]

I sent the photos of the hummingbird to Mike Patterson from Oregon 
(<http://home.pacifier.com/~neawanna/humm/count.html>) who bands western 
hummingbirds.  This is what he wrote:

It is a Rufous Hummingbird
Rufous in tail and rufous on belly make this an unequivocal
_Selasphorus_.  The rectrices are too broad for Allen's. R3, R4
and R5 all look to be about the same width.  R5 typically
looks narrower in Allen's
The tail also seem too narrow and too pointy tipped for
Broad-tailed.  And the gizz is just wrong for Broad-tailed
anyway.

The blurry, spread tail shot seems to show red in the R1's
(center two feathers) which would make this a HY male.  If
you get a clearer picture and the R1's a green, then it's an
adult female, but I think it's a young male.


Laura Erickson
Duluth, MN

NOTE address change: bluejay@lauraerickson.com

Producer, "For the Birds" radio program
<http://www.lauraerickson.com/>

There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of 
birds.  There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of 
nature--the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.

                                 --Rachel Carson