On Saturday Aug. 19, NTOS members Mary Zimmerman shrewdly detected an imm/f. -_Selasphorus-_ hummingbird at her feeders in e. Nashville. Today, Portia Macmillan and I banded it and confirmed its identity as an immature female Rufous Hummingbird. I have long believed that they pass through in small numbers in the fall but are almost never detected among the hordes of Ruby-throats that are now peaking. This bird adds one more data point in support of that hypothesis. The moral of the story: watch your feeders closely! The key is the tale - a _Selasphorus_ will always have extensive amounts of orange in the outer tale feathers, in addition to extensive rusty orange flanks (although some Ruby-throats can fool you occasionally on the latter). Regards, Chris Sloan Nashville, TN =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________