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Broad-billed Hummer (Sunday)



Hi Carolinabirders,

Shantanu Phukan and I saw the Broad-billed Hummingbird at Monte Tickle's 
house yesterday at roughly 10:40 AM. Sorry neither of us posted sooner, 
we were both a little sleep-deprived (and yet neither of us got to see 
the Leonids!). Actually, we're kind of relying on faith in Susan C. for 
the identification; Shantanu said he could only tell that it was some 
kind of hummingbird, and I could go only slightly beyond that and confirm 
that it was mostly green.

We had just arrived at the house and were introducing ourselves to Ms. 
Tickle when I heard a suspicious chipping call very different from the 
Yellow-rumped Warblers all around us. I turned to scan the trees, and the 
little bugger zipped in at the feeder behind us. It quickly zipped up 
into the trees; I had one or two good naked-eye looks at it perched in 
some twigs, but it was gone before we could get our binoculars on it. 
And, as Les Todd already noted, it never came back. We did get a thrill 
as something flew in and hovered over the garden pond, but it turned out 
to be a dragonfly...

Some tidbits that you may not already know: apparently the bird has been 
visiting its present location for FIVE WEEKS!! Ms. Tickle forgot to take 
her feeder down in September, and then last month a new hummer appeared 
long after her regulars had left. She kept feeding it, but didn't contact 
anyone (she's a beginning birder, and not on Carolinabirds) until the 
weather got cold and she became concerned for its survival. She says it 
visited every 15 minutes or so during the recent cold spell, but became 
far less regular when things warmed up again.

Anyway, her yard is a very birdy spot. There was near-constant activity 
in the surrounding trees. Shantanu and I noted 22 bird species, including 
the hummer, in about an hour and a half in the morning; we returned after 
a lengthy search for lunch (found some Thai food in Greensboro) to find 
Les Todd and some other birders waiting, and noted about seven or eight 
more species in the yard. We also saw a Red-tailed Hawk in the big 
hayfield along 70, and an accipiter not too far up the road from Ms. 
Tickle's house. She supplied us all with hot chocolate right before 
Shantanu and I had to leave.

Good birding,

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/