Name That Hummingbird

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Adult Male… www.wikipedia.org

Adult Male – Absolutely Magnificent!… © J. Adams – webpages.charter.net/adamfam/

Adult Female… © Manuel Grosselet – www.camacdonald.com

Magnificent Hummingbird (Eugenes fulgens )…

The Magnificent hummingbirds are very large – the mature adults are 5 inches in length, and the black bill is long and thin.

Both adult male and female Magnificent Hummingbirds look very dark unless the sun catches the iridescent plumage. The effect is especially amazing on the male because the rest of his plummage is mostly black.

The adult male Magnificent Hummingbird has a green-bronze dorsal, becoming more bronzed on the black-tipped tail, with gray undertail coverts. The crown is violet, the throat gorget bright blue, and the rest of the head is black, apart from a white spot behind the eye. The chest is green-bronze and the belly greyish.

The female Magnificent Hummingbird has a bronze-green dorsal and a dull grey ventral coloring. She has dull gray underparts, a dark, rounded tail with grayish-white corners.

The juvenile Magnificent Hummingbirds are like the adult female in size and coloring, just a bit darker and browner.

Their breeding range is in mountains from the southwestern United States to western Panama.

The habitat is along the edges and clearings of montane oak forests from about 2000 m to the timberline.

The female builds a bulky cup-shaped nest located around 3 m above the ground, near the tip of a descending branch stem. She incubates 2 white eggs for 15 to 19 days. The fledglings leave the nest 20 to 26 days after hatching.

Although this species is not considered endangered, and has adapted well to human-modified habitat, deforestation has caused considerable concern.

Amazingly, this has prompted “bird friendly” movements around the world. One of the most beneficial and widely recognized is the return to “shade-grown” coffee plantations that provide food and shelter for hummingbirds.

Acknowledgements: www.wikipedia.com  &  www.usgs.gov
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Video… Magnificent Hummingbird

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

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Magnificent Hummingbird… Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) Map  (This map is not available from the USGS, at present.)

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Magnificent Hummingbird… Christmas Bird Count (CBC) Map  (This map is not available from the USGS, at present.)