<This post was originally about just Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, but I heavily edited it with the more important news below>
"It" happened much sooner and with much less effort than I thought possible -- a Rufous Hummingbird visited my backyard!
The date was October 22nd a little after 5 o'clock in the evening. Two Ruby-throated Hummingbirds had been visiting the hummingbird feeder in the backyard for weeks. I happened to notice a lot of furious motion by the feeder and took a closer look. A new hummingbird was present and was aggressively defending the feeder from the Ruby-throats. Here's what I saw:
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| Rufous Hummingbird in my Wilmington, NC backyard, October 22 2012. Note the rufous color (fancy word for "brown") extending down the sides of the tail, the key field mark for this species. |
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| Rufous Hummingbird. Wilmington, NC. October 22 2012 |
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| Rufous Hummingbird on the right, Ruby-throated Hummingbird on the left. Wilmington, NC. October 22 2012. |
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| Ruby-throated Hummingbird on the feeder, Rufous Hummingbird hovering to the left. The Rufous Hummingbird is much more aggressive than the Ruby-throated birds and had a 100% success rate chasing them away from the feeder. |
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| A good look at the brown undertail on my Rufous Hummingbird. |
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| As the sun was setting, my wife Jaime took some excellent photos of the Rufous Hummingbird using a flash for illumination. |
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| Probably the best photo taken of our Rufous Hummingbird. Wilmington, NC. October 22 2012. |
Unfortunately the Rufous Hummingbird didn't hang around too long. After just two days she departed our backyard for parts unknown. It's always possible she'll be back, so I plan to keep a feeder stocked up with sugar water for her through the winter months ahead. The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds were all too happy to have the Rufous bird gone as some peace has returned to the backyard.
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A Ruby-throated Hummingbird, hanging out in my Wilmington, NC backyard in late October. The black patch on her neck is probably worn feathers from the rough rim of her nest earlier in the year.
So now that I've seen a Rufous Hummingbird, what's next on my list of rarities? I'd love to see a Black-chinned Hummingbird: they're rare in North Carolina but have been observed before. In fact just last winter one spent a good portion of the winter on the south side of Wilmington as shown by the numerous eBird reports here:
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eBird reports of a Black-chinned Hummingbird wintering in
Wilmington, NC during the winter of 2011-2012 |
Wow, that's exciting! I know how you feel. We've also had a first time sighting at our feeder in the Houston area--a buff-bellied hummingbird. Hope you get a black-chinned, too. Sounds possible.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I try to spend time every day watching for new birds. Since the Rufous was here in October we've only seen Ruby-throated Hummingbirds since -- but there's still a long winter ahead of us. I just saw the photos of the Buff-bellied and the Rufous Hummingbirds on your ONE SNAP blog -- you've captured amazing photos of those beautiful birds!
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