Durham hummer in NOT ruby-throated!

[Joshua Stuart Rose <jsr6@duke.edu>]

Hi Carolinabirders,

Just a quick note. Took work home again today. The hummer showed up 
again, just like before. My housemate Norm Douglas had accidentally lost 
most of the sugar water trying to melt it after it froze Friday night, 
and we were out of refined white sugar, so he mixed some up using brown 
sugar. The bird seems not to mind. Any hummer experts out there want to 
comment on use of brown sugar vs. white in feeders?

Anyway, as I was leaving for lunch, I stopped by the backyard gate for 
another look. The hummer appeared and perched in some shrubbery in the 
corner of the yard. Lo and behold, it had buffy/peachy sides and 
undertail coverts! Not an Archilocus after all, apparently! It had looked 
monochrome green-and-white before, but that was from inside the house; 
the feeder hangs in the shade of the roof eaves, and is generally 
backlit. This was the first sustained look I've had in good lighting 
conditions.

The bird still hasn't vocalized that I can tell; I had the window open 
today, and could hear Brown Creepers clearly; even heard the hummer's 
wings when it arrived at the feeder once, but no vocals. I still haven't 
seen its tail spread; the bugger mostly feeds perched, so I haven't been 
able to really study it in flight. I'll work on that more this afternoon, 
and maybe try for some better photos than the ones I took Thursday, which 
will probably show only silouettes. The bird has a few dark throat 
feathers, but I still haven't seen any sign of iridescence to them, so 
I'm still thinking female. And its tail was pretty prominent, not short 
and stubby, so probably not Calliope. Most likely Rufous, but hopefully 
Susan Campbell will drop in this week and confirm or deny that...

Good birding,

Josh



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

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