ML236078701

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Subadult seen at Bassetts station feeders. When we first saw it we were upset because it was much too large to be a Calliope which was our target bird for this location. While looking at it we noticed a very strange partial gorget that appeared purple. Initial thoughts were Black-chinned but we also noticed that the wings extended just beyond the tail which was wrong for Black-chinned. We sort of dismissed it and kept on looking for a Calliope which we did see soon after. Once at home we were reviewing the photos and noticed that it appears to be a Costa's Hummingbird. Details: Long wing projections which rule out everything but Calliope and Costa's, gorget color which is purple which rules out Calliope, white eye stripe extending down to neck which is unique to Costa's, it was larger than near by Calliope probably by about 1/2 and inch (actually used feeder port while perched), breast pattern consistent with a subadult, white under parts, and black line from bill to eye. Of all the years this year has had quite the Costa's Hummingbird eruptions in the Sierras with Costa's showing up in Shasta, Plumas, Yuba, Nevada, El Dorado, Calaveras, and Tuolumne counties.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D3500

ISO

800

Focal length

300 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/1000 sec

Dimensions

488 pixels x 729 pixels

Original file size

89.61 KB