Name That Hummingbird

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Adult Male… Gerald and Buff Corsi © California Academy of Sciences – calphotos.berkeley.edu

Adult Male, Closer Look… Joe Burgess – www.wikipedia.edu

Adult Female and a Bee (Two magnificent flying machines)… © 2007 Ram Vasudev – calphotos.berkeley.edu

Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus)…

Rufous Hummingbirds are small – the mature adults are only 3½ inches in length, and have long, thin, straight bills. Their predominant color is rufous (reddish)… hence their name.

The adult male Rufous Hummingbird has a white upper breast and an iridescent orange-red throat patch (gorget). His face, upperparts, flanks, and rump are rufous. His tail is also rufous, but has dark tips. Some males have some green on their backs and/or crowns.

The adult female Rufous Hummingbird has green back and crown, and white underparts. Her tail is dark with white tips and rufous base. She also has a group of iridescent red-orange feathers in the center of her pale throat.

As juvenile Rufous Hummingbirds, the young male is similar to the adult females, except his central tail feathers are like an adult male (rufous with dark tips). The juvenile female is also similar to adult females, except she has dark streaks on her throat.

Bird watchers are cautioned that females and the rare green-backed male Rufous hummingbirds are extremely difficult to differentiate from the Allen’s hummingbird. In fact, Rufous and Allen’s females and juveniles are inseparable in the field.

Rufous Hummingbirds are migratory, many of them migrating through the Rocky Mountains and nearby lowlands in July and August to take advantage of the wildflower season there. They may stay in one spot for considerable time, in which case the migrants, like breeding birds, often aggressively take over and defend feeding locations.

Most Rufous winter in wooded areas in the Mexico state of Guerrero, traveling over 2,000 miles by an overland route from their nearest summer home… a phenomenal journey for a bird weighing only three or four grams.

Their breeding habitat is open areas and forest edges in western North America from southern Alaska to California.

This bird nests further north than any other hummingbird. The female builds a nest in a protected location in a shrub or conifer. She incubates two tiny eggs (each the size of half a jelly bean!) for 12 to 14 days. The fledglings leave the nest 20 days after hatching. Normally, only one brood is raised per year, but in optimum years the female will occasionally raise two broods.

There has been an increasing trend for them to migrate east to winter in the eastern United States (Florida) and the Turks and Caicos Islands, rather than in Mexico. This trend is the result of increased survival with the provision of artificial feeders in gardens. In the past, individuals that migrated east in error would usually die, but now they often survive, and their tendency to migrate east is inherited by their offspring.

Provided sufficient food and shelter is available, the tiny Rufous Hummingbird is surprisingly hardy. They can actually tolerate temperatures down to at least -20°C!

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

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Video… “Rufous Hummingbird”

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

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Rufous 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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Rufous Hummingbird… Christmas Bird Count (CBC) Map Christmas Bird Count (CBC) This survey is typically performed in one calendar day, any time from mid-December to early January by volunteers. Birds are counted in an area with a 15 mile radius. Data from this survey is used to generate the CBC maps. Courtesy of www.usgs.gov

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