rufous hummingbird vs allen's hummingbird

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Posted on August 29, 2020

Rufous or Allen's Hummingbird. Yes, an entirely or even predominantly orange back is diagnostic of adult male Rufous (see the new photo added near the top of the post), but the confidence declines dramatically once the green creeps past mid-back. 0000005990 00000 n My husband and I have some deep-seated beleifs that prevent us from allowing the bird to be banded. The most spectacular example was a juvenile female banded one winter in Tallahassee, Florida and recaptured the following summer in southeastern Alaska, about 3500 miles away.
Expanding their winter range beyond tropical Mexico may help Rufous survive as a species despite habitat destruction, climate change, and other challenges.Mid-March is on the late side for an adult male Rufous to begin spring migration, which suggests that he’s a member of one of the northernmost populations and in no hurry to return to a territory where the flowers don’t normally bloom for several more weeks. 0000046715 00000 n Allen's Hummingbird has a green back and rump, but a rufous tail, and the Rufous usually has a rufous back, rump and tail. 0000003240 00000 n Please note that the commercial link in your comment has been removed in accordance with this blog’s zero-tolerance policy for spam.A belated thanks for this very informative article! So similar, in fact, the females are almost identical. I get them at my feeders daily. Separating these green-backed individuals in the field requires careful inspection of the shape of the spread outer tail feathers. If the back is less than half green (including entirely rufous), you can safely call it a Rufous without seeing the tail. The bird spent the entire winter with us and left as an adult male, and he returned 3 days ago. (Note the green crown, which is normal, and the green gorget, which is an artifact of the angle. I hope he hasn’t scared them off. Since the feeder is outside our dining room window I did get several good looks at him.Since they are so aggressive will it chase away my regular visiting hummers. Any help would be appreciated.Based on the amount of rufous on the back and the width of the central tail feathers, I suspect it’s a Rufous, but as the post indicates only a good look at the tail feathers can confirm the ID.Thank you so much! Migration. Allen’s hummingbirds and rufous hummingbirds are often confused by less experienced birders because they look similar. Females and immatures are very difficult to separate. )Allen's Hummingbirds are often best separated by shape of the outer tail feathers: narrow on Allen's, but wide on Rufous Hummingbirds. Migrants also occur in high mountain meadows in late summer.

10. 0000006680 00000 n I am also consulting with Bob Seargent who has been very helpful. The majority of adult males have a rusty back and tail.

0000000927 00000 n This bird is even more extensively green backed than the one on the right.After taking these two photographs I’m now convinced that I need to be much more careful about how I enter data into eBird, even when it comes to identifying the supposedly more easily identifiable adult male Rufous/Allen’s Hummingbirds. For most of the year the little Anna’s hummingbirds rule the yard. I’ve done this with my tropical field guides (which are Good information, This will help everyone identify the migrating hummingbirds. Allen's Hummingbirds are often best separated by shape of the outer tail feathers: narrow on Allen's, but wide on Rufous Hummingbirds. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Thanks to the birds' incredible flight ability, hummingbird migration can be surprisingly fast: The Ruby-throated Hummingbird, for example, makes a nonstop 500-mile journey across the Gulf of Mexico in less than a day.

First the right hand bird that’s perched in the shot.

This bird almost certainly wintered within a few hundred miles of you and probably stopped off at your feeder on his way back to his northwestern breeding grounds. Though they have been seen outside the following window, migrant Rufous are mainly an ID issue for local birders between the first week of February and the end of May and the last week of June through the third week of September.

Most are traveling through the Pacific and Intermountain flyways and will end up in Mexico, but a significant minority (hundreds) will stray east of the Rockies to delight and confuse migration watchers and winter hummingbird aficionados.An unambiguous adult male Rufous. The best feature is the shape of feathers in the spread tail: narrow outer tail feathers on Allen's, but wide on Rufous. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. The female is a greener version of the male with a speckled throat. 0000001778 00000 n Yours is the very BEST for hummers and leaves the others in the dust. Every year there are Rufous Hummingbirds that show up outside the typical window, but I think Kimball Garrett’s challenge of photographing an adult male Rufous in midwinter has yet to find a claimant for that prize.Young male and female birds of all ages are even harder to identify. I was told this by a local birder on my first visit to southeastern Arizona in 1978, and on her authority I put Allen’s Hummingbird on my life list based on the little orange and green female-plumaged birds swarming around her feeders.

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