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Hummingbird in Somerset, UK?? (1 Viewer)

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SuePermann

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I posted this yesterday but possibly under the wrong forum! So I'm posting again in the hope that someone can help!.

"Hi all. My son told me that, a few days ago, he saw a hummingbird hovering outside the sitting room window. He said it was blue, was hovering at an absolute standstill with it's wings appearing as "just a line" because they were beating so fast. He said it was bird-sized, had a long beak, slightly curved and was hovering in an upright position. It hovered outside the window looking in (!), flitted to another corner and hovered for a few minutes then shot off in the air.

Now, my first thought was hummingbird moth but this just doesn't seem to fit the bill. He insists that there was a definite blue colour and estimates it was around 4-5" long.

This was on one of the really hot days we had recently so I'm wondering whether it's just escaped from somewhere!

Any ideas??! Has anyone else seen one in the Shepton Mallet area of Somerset on 8th August?"

Thank you!
 
Hummingbirds aren't native to anywhere outside the Americas, and aren't really kept as pets, so the only source of an escapee would be a zoo or aviary somewhere. Plenty of other birds can hover for short periods of time, especially if they are intrigued be their reflection in window. I'm less familiar with birds of Europe, but the only thing I can come up with is a Blue Tit, though it's not a perfect match.
 
Description is mostly spot on for a hummingbird, including the behavior: hovering at a window, shifting to a nearby vantage to hover again, then zooming away.

The part that bothers me is "hovered for a few minutes". I've never seen a hummingbird hover in one spot for more than a few seconds. (Neither would a tit or other small bird, nor a dragonfly, nor a hawkmoth, nor anything else I can think of.)

My Googling indicates that as of a few years ago, the London zoo was the only one in the UK to keep hummingbirds, and the species they kept/keep there isn't/wasn't blue. So I have no idea where a large blue hummingbird would have come from.
 
Hawk moths can hover for some time. I've seen some on the spot for up to 8 seconds but no reason they wouldn't do it longer.
 
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It will be a Hummingbird Hawkmoth which behaves and is sized similarly to a small hummingbird. It's the right time of year as well for them coming over from the continent.
 
Hummingbird Hawk Moths aren't blue, though.

Perhaps unlikely in a town garden, but Common Kingfishers are known to hover: http://www.besgroup.blogspot.co.uk/2006/12/common-kingfisher-hovering.html - and I've had people several times tell me they saw a bird so "exotic" looking it "couldn't possibly be native to Britain" and "must have escaped from somewhere", which turned out to be a kingfisher...

On the other hand, this could well have been a rather loose interpretation of "hovering", in which case Blue Tit is a possibility, or maybe even something like a Starling with its iridescence looking "blue"...
 
Time estimates are pretty imprecise, just like size estimates, so I'd not take 'a few minutes' as gospel.
Rather I'd like to know how old was the observer and does he wear glasses.
A keen 8 year old can be pretty sharp, in fact one of them, Isaiah, spotted and called the lone Bald Eagle seen at the NY Central Park Christmas Bird Count last year.
It might help to have the observer create a sketch of what he saw, because blue heads are not the norm even among hummingbirds.
 
Assuming for a moment it isn't a hawkmoth, the hovering action with fast wingbeats could mean a number of small birds when confronted with a window. Just have to figure out the blue and long-billed part now!
 
Common kingfisher trying to intimidate its reflection seems the most likely explanation. Their beaks aren't curved, but sometimes they have uneven coloration on the lower bill that will give an illusion of a slight curve.

There's a difference in the appearance of the wings of a hummingbird vs a hovering kingfisher, but if you're not familiar with hummingbirds it's easy enough to make that mistake.
 
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If it wasn´t a Hummingbird Hawkmoth the only possibilities I can offer, and sometimes seen missidentified as hummingbirds (even on zoo information posters and special literatur!), are Purple Honeycreeper (Cyanerpes caeruleus) and Red-legged Honeycreeper (Cyanerpes cyaneus). Both males offering blue color and a hummingbird bill as well.
Both species aren´t native to Europe but, espacially the latter, keeped in aviaries.
 
I know it's annoying people suggesting common birds but have you considered that it could be a starling? When the light falls on them just right they can appear blue/purplish? Maybe you can find a good photo on the net showing the iridescence of starlings and see what he thinks just to rule it out?
 
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