ML37635231

Age and sex

Adult Female - 1

Media notes

White "beaded" eye ring, at least at the bottom. Gray spots on cheeks, against lighter gray background. Sibley says, for adult female Broad-tailed, "pale eyering," "spotted cheeks." (2nd ed.) Neat spotting on throat, in lines radiating out from the central point where the lower mandible reaches the feathering of the chin.

Observation details

My video shows rufous on tail (one frame is presented here) -- which pretty much narrows things down to Selasphorus -- but no rufous specifically on the broad central feathers of the tail, which (as I understand it) rules out all plumages of Allen's and Rufous. (Calliope has some rufous on the tail. See below for the elimination of this "similar species.") Jim Hinson noted the broad tail. This feature is confirmed by Sibley, as is not surprising. The other Selasphorus have narrower, shorter and more pointed central tail feathers. Pale eyering. The wingtip is hidden beneath the tail, so it is hard to judge how closely it approaches the tail tip. This point about the bird is discussed in detail in the comments on my photo, ML306158781. Finally, the bird also has the "neatly spotted throat" mentioned by Sibley. I'll summarize points on "similar species" here (except for Rufous and Allen's, addressed above). See the comments on individual photos for fuller detail. Ruby-throated and Black-chinned have very narrow inner primaries, with the width of primaries increasing until P6. At P10 there is some tapering, to a narrow rounded tip. ML306158781 shows the different primaries pattern of my bird. Anna’s is ruled out by its lack of rufous on the sides, flanks and tail, and by its overall gray or gray-green below. The female Anna’s also typically has a red central patch on the throat and white over the eye. (Sibley, 2nd ed.) Calliope Hummingbird is ruled out because it has a very short bill and a short tail -- easily told from the relatively long tail of the hummer in my photos -- and because its wingtips extend beyond its short tail, which is not the case with my bird. Both male and female of Broad-billed and Buff-bellied Hummingbird have red on their bills. My bird does not.

Technical information

Model

DSC-HX1

ISO

400

Focal length

100 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.2

Shutter speed

0.02 sec

Dimensions

2280 pixels x 1520 pixels

Original file size

2.87 MB