Name That Hummingbird

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Adult Male… © 2007 Heather Lannie – calphotos.berkeley.edu

Adult Female at Nest… www.wikipedia.org

Immature Male or an Adult Female? (hint… look at the tail)… © 2008 Ron Wolf – calphotos.berkeley.edu

Allen’s Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin)…

The Allen’s hummingbirds are small - the mature adults are only 3 to 3½ inches in length.

The male Allen’s Hummingbird has a green back and crown, with rust-colored rufous (strong yellowish pink to moderate orange, reddish) flanks, rump, and tail. The male’s throat is also an iridescent orange-red, and his tail has black tips.

The female Allen’s Hummingbird has a mostly green back and crown, featuring rufous colors only on the tail, which has white tips. She also has a series of speckles on her throat, with a small patch of red in the center area.

The juvenile Allen’s Hummingbirds are nearly identical to the adult females, except the tips of their tails are dark and they lack any red on their throats. Bird watchers are cautioned that the female and immature Allen’s hummingbirds are so similar to the female Rufous Hummingbird that about the only way to distinguish the two in the field is to factor in the breeding seasons and ranges of both species.

Only the female Allen’s hummingbird constructs the nest and raises the young. She gathers plant fibers, down, and weed stems, and then uses lichens and spider webs to strengthen the nest. Normally, she locates it above ground on a tree branch or the stalk or stem of a plant.

She lays two white jelly-bean sized eggs, which she will incubate for 15 to 17 days. The young will leave the nest about three weeks after hatching. Amazingly, she will continue to feed the fledglings for several more weeks, then the young are left to fend for themselves.

Allen’s hummingbirds are non-migratory in southern California. Spring migration into the rest of coastal California (up to about the Oregon state line) is normally from January to April. They return south in July and August.

Acknowledgements: www.wikipedia.com www.usgs.gov

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Video… “RARE footage – Allen’s hummingbird eggs hatching June 12, 2010.wmv”

Thanks to jlstube1 for posting this video on www.YouTube.com

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Allen’s Hummingbird… Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) Map Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) This survey is typically performed in June by volunteers on over 4000 bird counts. The counts are done by vehicle during the morning. Many nocturnal or less vocal species are not well surveyed by the BBS. Data from this survey is used to generate the BBS maps. Courtesy of www.usgs.gov

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CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT (CBC) Map (This map is not available from the USGS, at present.