Monday, November 24, 2008

Missed one!



Another view of one of my winter visitors. Can't tell if this is the banded bird or not, from this perspective.

Friday, November 14, 2008

It's Winter Hummer season!

I already reported that I have two winter hummingbirds...both female Selasphorus Rufous/Allens.  I thought I saw a juvenile male one day too, but the look was very brief and I haven't seen him again, so I didn't count him.  But I've set up my birdcam to watch the feeder in the back and I now think I've had caught at least 3 different birds on camera.  And today, after reviewing the latest pics, I realized that one of them is BANDED!  The band is on her left leg.  Nancy didn't band here last year, but she did the two previous years, so this is likely a returnee!  I'm so excited!

Here are pictures of the three birds...  You can click on the picture to see a larger version (and then use Back button to return to the previous page).

This is the first one I got pictures of.  As you can see, she has white tips on her tail, with distinct dark bands next to the white.  In this picture you can see her left leg, and she is not banded.  We'll call her White Tips.



This is the next one to show up.  She has no white tips on her tail, and she has distinctly rufous coloring to the feathers on her back, especially toward the tail.  We'll call her Red Tail.



And this one....this is the one with the band!  I looked back at my pics and I actually had a pic of her on Oct 7, but I didn't notice til today that she has the band on her left leg.  Also, because of timestamps, I am fairly positive that she is a different bird than Red Tail -- her back and tail are much more blue green -- no distinct rufous coloring.


 We'll just call her Amazing!  :-)