• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Hummingbird in Somerset, UK?? (1 Viewer)

SuePermann

New member
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?
 
Thanks for replying. Definitely not a hummingbird hawkmoth! We see them quite frequently (in fact saw one 10 minutes ago while I was cleaning the windows!). The bird my son saw was a lot larger (small wren sized) and definitely blue! Ah well, another of life's mysteries!
 
hi sue,
there is no british or european bird that fits your description.

In the very unlikely event that this was an escaped hummingbird (they are very rare in captivity in britain) there are more than 300 species so no way to tell which one from the description

as you say you will have to file it as one that got away.

cheers,
James
 
What is cross-posting?? Do you mean because I posted on the hummingbird forum first? If so, sorry. I only realised afterwards that the majority of posts on there were American so thought it would be better posting here. :-C

And yes, I teased my son that it was the kids next door with a mini-kite or toy helicopter! He wasn't happy!
 
It could be a Blue Tit. We see them regularly doing this looking for insects in the corners of the window frames. It's surprising how long they can hover for.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 10 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top