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Hummer ID? (1 Viewer)

Option1

Option1

Village Idiot
Australia - Aboriginal
Hi folks,

My wife took the attached pic of a hummer we've had floating around lately. It's always too quick for us to get a great look at it and it seems to be much smaller (about 2.5 inches long) than the usual Anna's we get. At least I think we usually get Anna's, I'm not all that up on IDing hummingbirds, obviously. :)

Any ideas?

Hummer_9aug03.jpg


Neil
 
I'm thinking Black-chinned hummingbird. Decurved bill, white spot behind eye, white outer tail feather tips, alittle smaller than Anna's Hummingbird. Costa's could also be possible but should show some more white around eye.

I'd love to see another picture.

dennis
 
Thanks dennis, your help is appreciated. As for loving to see another pic of it, so would we. :)

We'll try and get another shot at it next weekend. Hopefully, closer and clearer.

Neil
 
Yes, I think Blk-chinned too-- would like to see the upper breast (currently hidden by the wing), but I think, peering through the wing blur, that it's nice and white.
 
Costa's Hummers are pretty rare in this area (it's more of a southern California bird), and in any case, it would show some white above the eye. I think we can also rule out Rufous and Allen's, which are passing through the Santa Cruz Mountains right now, but which show a lot of orange/rufous coloring to the tail, flanks, etc. From what Neil is saying, the bird is too small to be an Anna's. That leaves two regularly occurring possibilities for this area - Black-chinned and Calliope (the rarer of the two in this area).

Both Calliope and Black-chinned have a white spot behind the eye and a greenish/grayish cast to the flanks. The Black-chinned has a more decurved bill, but it's hard for me to say whether the bill is straight or decurved from the photograph, since the wing is partially obscuring the tip. However, in profile view, the Black-chinned Hummingbird does have a rounder, more "domed" look to its head than a Calliope; this feature is pretty obvious from the photograph. Also, the Calliope will show an obvious white line above the gorget, running from the gape of the bill all the way back to the neck. This bird does show a faint bit of white above the gorget, but it is very weak, and it does not extend past the eye to reach the bill. Perhaps the faint white here is just a bit of feather wear? In any case, I'll cast my vote for Black-chinned Hummingbird, as well.

Arnel Guanlao
 
Last edited:
I vote for Anna's.

Black-chinned would be a considerable rarity in Santa Cruz. In 30 years of birding Northern California, I have never seen a Black-chinned along the coast. I have seen them as close to the coast as Carmel Valley and it's not impossible.

But I do not see the very long decurved bill of Black-chinned on the image. Also male Black-chinned have a white collar under the gorget that wraps up the side of the neck. I do not see that effect here.

If you look at the width of the primaries, you can see that they appear to be all the same width. On Black-chinned, the inner primaries are noticeably narrower than the outer ones.

For these reasons, I cast my vote for Anna's Hummingbird. That is also by far the most common species in the Santa Cruz area year round.
 
I'm no hummer expert, but for what its worth, my vote is for Anna's too, for these reasons:
1. pale streak behind the white ear spot - Sibley shows this for Anna's, and not for Black-chinned.
2. That this pale streak ends in a small greyish triangle on the side of the nape - present on Anna's, not present on Black-chinned, and large and white on Costa's.
3. wingtip shape - the photo 'freezes' this tolerably well, and I think the broad rounded tip of a Black-chinned's outer primary would be visible, which it isn't.
4. The bill is fairly straight; both Costa's and Black-chinned should be a bit more curved.

Michael
 
Another vote for Anna's

To me the bill doesn't look down-curved. I also think I can see a hint of the white eye-ring in front of the eye. There is also the suggestion of a pale eye-stripe continuing behind the eye.
Both the latter features rule out Black-chinned.
Are the flanks on Black-chinned as well marked as this individual?
They appear to be too solid in colour to me.

Mark
 
Interesting points. I was assuming that Neil's assessment of the bird's size was accurate, but knowing how easy it is to misjudge sizes, that might not have been a good assumption. I didn't realize there was a variation in the width of the primaries on the Black-chinned Hummingbird (having never banded or photographed them).

Arnel Guanlao
 
Hi Michael,

I'll check it out. Usually, the Black-chinneds that I've identified in the past have been males in good light, so I could simply tell by the gorget pattern, the head shape, and the bill curve. But, that's what I love about these photograph challenges....they force you to look at other details than what you would normally look for....

Arnel Guanlao

P.S.: Neil, I love the shot!
 
Thanks guys for all your input.

So the mystery deepens because it's definitely in the region of half the size of an Anna's, which we do see plenty of around here. This one is tiny and as I said about 2.5 inches long. Mind you, I'm mostly used to seeing Anna's females around here for some reason. We see very few males and I'm not sure if there's a size difference between genders.

One other thing I didn't mention, because the glimpses of it have been so fleeting, is that it appears to have some rufous colouring underneath on lower breast/belly region. I'm not positive on that because the little beggar zips around so quickly.

I'll really have to try and get some more images of it.

Thanks again for the moment we'll tentatively call it an Anna's pending further investigation. :)

Neil
 
Yikes! Now I really *am* stumped. How about an Allen's hummer impersonating an Anna's, that is pretending to be a Black-chinned?

:gn: :D


Arnel Guanlao
 
Hi Neil,

How big are the blossoms in the foreground? The hummer's length appears to be about one and a half times the width of these blossoms. That will probably give us a rough idea of how big the bird is. An Anna's would average around 4 inches in length.

Arnel Guanlao
 
On my computer screen, the Albizia flowers appear about life size, so the bird's screen length of 8cm (straight-line) or 9.5cm (along the zig-zag!).

Remember the lengths of birds published in books are of limp dead birds stretched out. Living birds are more compact and always look much smaller than the book length. So the pic length would be about right for Anna's.

Michael
 
I can't speak to the size of the Albizia flowers; if they are life size, then the bird's size (3.5 to 4.0 inches) would be OK for Anna's - as well as all of the other regularly occurring hummers that appear in this state.

BTW, I did check out Sibley's drawing of the Black-chinned Hummer, and the different primary widths are (to me) rather subtly suggested there. He doesn't call it out as a distinguishing feature of the bird, probably because it's not something that you'd be able to recognize that often in the field. Sheri Williamson's 'Hummingbirds of North America' does a better job of illustrating this trait, with a close-up photograph of a Black-chinned's wings on Plate 7. It's pretty clear to me now that the bird in our photograph can't be a Black-chinned, because it does not have this trait.

Incidentally, Sibley's does show a subadult, male Black-chinned with a pale, white eyeline extending behind the eye and back across the neck, so presumably, this isn't a characteristic that allows you to distinguish an Anna's from a Black-chinned.

Arnel Guanlao
 
Okay, update, I saw the bird pictured myself this morning and it's an Anna's.

My wife had led me to believe that it was the MUCH smaller one we've had buzzing around (that I suspect does have some rufous colouring on it's underside). I interogated her fiercely last night, oh okay, okay, I asked her nicely about the hummer in the picture and she admitted she wasn't so sure it was the little one.

Then, as I said, I actually saw it this morning in the Silk tree and it was 3 to 3.5 inches in size, significantly bigger than the other hummer we've had floating around.

So one mystery solved, and I thank you deeply (and apologise profusely for the misleading info) for all your help. Now all I've got to do is get a better look (and preferably a photograph) of the other one that's been frequenting here.

Oh and for all those doubting me, I can tell size fairly well (in both inches and centimetres). :D

Thanks again to Arnel, Michael, Dennis, Charles, Joseph, Mark, Uncle Tom Cobbley and all for your help. It is much appreciated.

Neil
 
I was wondering if there weren't two birds involved.....

Incidentally, the smaller hummingbird with rufous on the underside is probably an Allen's or a Rufous. If it's a female or immature bird, it's usually pretty hard to identify it to the species.

Arnel Guanlao
 
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