9 replies to this topic

[PanHanNE]

Garden County Nebraska 8-7-12

After a week of "thinking" I have seen it flitting in the tree, I finally got a picture today. I am guessing Ruby-throated Hummingbird female, even though we are not shown in range even for migration here in the panhandle.

[spookyjimjams]

I think it could be a Broad-tailed Hummingbird. The range is near (not great), and from what this photo looks like, it appears that the tail is longer than the primaries.

[RustyE]

I would say Ruby. The white on a broad-tail reaches all the way up to the eye and behind the eye were on female ruby's it's more of a straight line from beak to the shoulders.

[eyewaunabirdwatch]

Are you in the range of the Rufous Hummingbird? With the rufous coloring on the side I would say it is a Rufous Female. We had 2 breeding pairs at our place in WA state and had many opportunities to observe and photograph them.

[kozmik111]

Female broad-tailed shows a touch of rusty color on the side like that. IMO Rufous would show more, as well as a red central patch on the throat. I agree with Broad-tailed

[Kryptos18]

I've seen immature female Rufous Hummingbirds with about that much red before. Nothing's in range, but Rufous are a lot more likely to wander in migration than anything else, so if I was a betting man that's what I'd say. But I'm not, so I'll stick with a much safer ID of Selasphorus sp.

[hbvol]

I can't much to this thread except that I am pretty confident that it's not a ruby throat

[PanHanNE]

Although nothing is actually in range, our area does get a few hummers each year, according to the long-time residents here. Crescent Lake National Wildlife bird list here in the county just lists "Hummingbirds" with no species. In the next county, Lake McConaughy's bird list only lists Ruby-throated. North of us, South Dakota lists several species.

Today, I have seen three individual hummers taking turns at the feeder. I do not know if they are all the same species or not, but susspect they probably are. Maybe male, female, and juvenile, or female and two juveniles. Just guessing. But I did get a few pictures, and perhaps it will be enough that someone that is familiar with Hummingbirds can nail it down for sure.

Bird 1 (2 shots)

and


Bird 2 (three views)

Bird 2 front

Bird 2 back


and I do not know if this was either of the previous birds or not:

[PanHanNE]

Really, I can count to three. I didn't post another picture of the bird that looked like the first bird in this post, with the wide patche of rusty (or is it called rufous) color on the sides (flanks?). I also noticed that the birds in morning light before 10am looked larger than the birds in bright afternoon light. In the same tree. They looked smaller this afternoon. Maybe all that sun shrunk them, or maybe its a lesson to me about judging size in different light.

[PanHanNE]

And one more. A couple look different enough to me that I am wondering if there might be at least two different kinds of birds. (pointed tail/rounded tail, white breast with rufus rump/rufus breast with white rump, green head/brown head/ )
Any one want to offer more thoughts?