FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] FYI: More on late season hummer IDs

["Palmer-Ball, Brainard (EPPC OOS KNPC)" <Brainard.Palmer-Ball@xxxxxx>]

In response to some off-listserve chatting about late fall/winter hummer IDs, I 
offer a few additional notes:
 
My remark in my last email about the strong wash of reddish-brown on the 
undertail, flanks and sides of the belly being the "most noticeable" indication 
of the possibility of a non-Ruby-throated Hummingbird in late fall and winter 
remains, at least to me, true ... but it certainly is not the whole story.
 
In Kentucky since the late 1980s, we have now had just shy of 50 confirmed 
non-Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in the late fall/winter seasons. All but one (a 
hatch-year male Black-chinned) have been a confirmed Rufous or Rufous/Allen's 
type. Nearly 10 have been adult males, with the rest split widely between hatch 
year birds and females. In all cases of these "accepted" records of non-males, 
the birds have been photographed and the strong wash of rufous color on the 
sides of the belly has been obvious. This is not to say that at some times of 
the year or within the entire population, one could not find examples of birds 
that don't show such an obvious wash of color on the sides ... but at least in 
Kentucky in fall and winter, it has been a pretty obvious and consistent 
character. As a side note ... hopefully, the fact that a record of Allen's 
Hummingbird (essentially identical to Rufous in imm. and female plumages) 
continues to elude us in KY will be remedied with time :o)
 
An unintended pitfall that I could have led someone into with the statement 
would be the inference that the lack of a strong wash of color on the sides of 
the belly of a tardy hummer is *not* suggestive of something interesting! Other 
potential rarities including Broad-tailed and Calliope have small amounts of 
rufous color in the bases of their outer tail feathers and less apparent washes 
of reddish-brown on the sides of the belly than Rufous ... and imm/female 
Black-chins are nearly identical to Ruby-throateds in plumage characters. And 
there are, of course, even more exciting possibilities lurking out there, too! 
So the bottom line is that the absence of a strong wash of color on the sides 
of the belly does not automatically mean the bird is a Ruby-throated.
 
There are several other indications of possible non-Ruby-throateds ... one that 
is also quite noticeable in Rufous is the chip note. Rufous are almost always 
noticeable if your observation is out-of-doors because their chip note is 
distinctly different than what you may have become used to with Ruby-throateds. 
In regards to other plumage, structural, and size differences, the newer field 
guides are doing a great job of summarizing plumage characters, so anyone with 
a National Geo or Sibley should be able to sit down and, with a little study, 
decide if they think they have something worth mentioning.
 
bpb, Frankfort