Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
This report recently surfaced after an eBird reviewer flagged this species as "not an Anna's"--which I originally identified it as. Two experts independently identified this bird as an immature male Ruby-throated Hummingbird. This sighting was prior to my banding station so I do not have in-hand details. RTHU was clearly not on my radar, because looking closer there are a few details that now pop out for me as a RTHU. First, I included another cropped photo showing the unequal widths in the outer primaries. P6 is pointed and much narrower than P7-P10. This feature alone rules out everything but the two species of Archilochus. The proportionally small head, dark mask, no pale eyebrow, whitish underparts with faint tawny wash, strongly contrasting gorget pattern, green feathers on sides without broad pale borders, distinctly notched tail, and medium-width rectrices all point to Ruby-throated. Immature male black-chinned hummingbirds are duller green above and typically lack that amount of green along flanks. Also, the pointed P6 and longer R4 are typical of RTHU. *Original description from initial report--"Was just going through many hummingbird photos from last year when this one popped out. I must have been too focused on getting pictures to think about what I was seeing at the time. Short, stocky build and relatively small bill. Green flanks and green above. Wingtips fall short of tail. R4 is slightly longer than R5 and have white tips. R3 has small whitish tip. No rufous coloring on flanks or sides of tail/underside of tail."
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL
- ISO
- 100
- Focal length
- 300 mm
- Flash
- Flash fired, auto, red-eye reduction
- f-stop
- f/5.6
- Shutter speed
- 1/60 sec
- Dimensions
- 3072 pixels x 2048 pixels
- Original file size
- 1.56 MB