mike hawley
Occasional Alcoholic
Could anybody help me with the identification of a Hummingbird.Whilst visiting California at Morro Bay in April we spotted our very first Hummingbird.
Having taken copious notes I imagined that subsequent perusal of the Sibley guide would pinpoint the bird with no problem. However I had not taken into account the the inability of Sibleys colour illustrations to depict irridescent colour.
We watched the bird through binos in full sunlight as it perched in the top branches of the scrub trees and made occasional flights to catch bugs.
It initially appeared to be all black and viewed in profile, perched, it still appeared all black or very very dark green. When it turned to face our viewing point a dazzling scarlet red bib was highlighted in the sunlight, I have never seen such bright plumage on any bird. Our viewing point with the sun behind us would have rendered colour rendition as good as it gets yet Sibley shows no bird with all dark plumage (black or irridescent green) and a brilliant scarlet bib. I cannot comment on relative size, length of bill etc due to my lack of hummingbird experience but I would have thought that such distinctive plumage would lead to identification
Could anybody enlighten me please
Having taken copious notes I imagined that subsequent perusal of the Sibley guide would pinpoint the bird with no problem. However I had not taken into account the the inability of Sibleys colour illustrations to depict irridescent colour.
We watched the bird through binos in full sunlight as it perched in the top branches of the scrub trees and made occasional flights to catch bugs.
It initially appeared to be all black and viewed in profile, perched, it still appeared all black or very very dark green. When it turned to face our viewing point a dazzling scarlet red bib was highlighted in the sunlight, I have never seen such bright plumage on any bird. Our viewing point with the sun behind us would have rendered colour rendition as good as it gets yet Sibley shows no bird with all dark plumage (black or irridescent green) and a brilliant scarlet bib. I cannot comment on relative size, length of bill etc due to my lack of hummingbird experience but I would have thought that such distinctive plumage would lead to identification
Could anybody enlighten me please
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