North Central Texas Hummingbirds (1 Viewer)

The hummingbirds are beginning to show up in this area again, and these two along with a Ruby Throated Hummingbird were feeding today. For some reason, I can't seem to match these two up with anything I have in my field guide. Any ideas?

The one on the right looks like a Black-Chinned male; unless the other one is a female, I'm not sure.

Scrogdog said:

The hummingbirds are beginning to show up in this area again, and these two along with a Ruby Throated Hummingbird were feeding today. For some reason, I can't seem to match these two up with anything I have in my field guide. Any ideas?

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Both have green heads. Both have short heavy bills. The male has a long tail. They both have a lot of gold coloration. They are both Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.

humminbird said:

Both have green heads. Both have short heavy bills. The male has a long tail. They both have a lot of gold coloration. They are both Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.

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I'm glad you posted your analysis, because I hadn't really looked closely at this thread until you did.

It's true that the male's throat iridescence can be of an uncertain color at certain angles, so I won't throw that in against Ruby-throated. I would agree that the tail seems too long and the bill seems too short for Black-chinned - would it be fair to at least agree that these are both Archilochus? Though the wings are a little too "broad and curved" (as Sibley describes it) for my taste, I'll chalk it up to misleading angle/photograph and agree on the male as a Ruby-throated.

The female... I dunno. This could be a Black-chinned, IMO. Tail seems stubby, head seems more gray than green... We can't see the bill for length analysis.

AlexC said:

I'm glad you posted your analysis, because I hadn't really looked closely at this thread until you did.

It's true that the male's throat iridescence can be of an uncertain color at certain angles, so I won't throw that in against Ruby-throated. I would agree that the tail seems too long and the bill seems too short for Black-chinned - would it be fair to at least agree that these are both Archilochus? Though the wings are a little too "broad and curved" (as Sibley describes it) for my taste, I'll chalk it up to misleading angle/photograph and agree on the male as a Ruby-throated.

The female... I dunno. This could be a Black-chinned, IMO. Tail seems stubby, head seems more gray than green... We can't see the bill for length analysis.

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They are almost definitely both Archilochus. I will concede on the tail length on the female. I am uncomfortable with the amount of gold in her, and the bill seems to be heavier in structure than I would consider normal on a Black-chinned. Her head has quite a bit of green to the side, but I can not see the crown at this angle, so yes, she is an archilochus and I will back off on the strong statement of Ruby-throated, though I do think that is the more probable call.

I would note also that hybridization is more common than most people think in hummingbirds. I have personally seen three different hybrid combinations, one of which (I have seen three specimens) were probably Ruby-throated X Black-chinned based on bander measurements and observations in hand.


Mark
Bastrop, TX

Thanks for the replies. Sorry the pictures didn't come out as well as I had hoped. They were taken in the late afternoon with cloudy skies above and I tried to use a flash to get their colors to show up and they ended up looking more like a negative than their actual colors. Bird one's entire head looks gray in the natural light and bird two's head was entirely black. I had another bird that was definitely a Ruby Throated with the red throat very well defined, but the two I photographed had no red that I could see and looked much different from one another when I observed them at the feeder. If they return today, I will see if I can get better photos that more accurately show the coloration and submit.

Gary