Female Hummer's are very difficult aren't they.
San Berdnadino is noted for Anna's, Black-chinned and Calliope - but the
last is a tiny bird and can be excluded. Both the first two females have
small streaks of white behind the eye, I think this is visible in the photo
of the female's back. They also have white tail tips which does not show in
photos apparently - see below.
Looking again at the photo's, I am struck by the size of the bird, it is
large for a California Hummer - Anna's is the largest breeding bird in the
area and is the more common garden bird IMHO - more so than Black-chinned
according to the Birders Guide to Southern California. (I don't own a copy
of Sibley, unfortunately. I have The Peterson Guide to Western Birds and a
very battered copy of Robbins, Brunn and Zim's Birds of North America).
http://www.pbase.com/rockawaybirder/image/40863798 and
http://daviswiki.org/Users/CarlMcCabe?action=Files&do=view&target=00143.jpg
are photo's of Anna's for comparison.
http://www.pbase.com/ejohnson/image/42830189 and
http://www.pbase.com/ejohnson/image/27292238
and http://www.naturalvisionsphoto.com/weblog2/2007/05/ are Black-chinned.
The Female doesn't look very like the illustration of either, but I will
still stay with Anna's (The green back color is not very significant as most
Hummer colour is prismatic, I think) . However I would not be immeasurably
shocked if it was proved to be Black-chinned. I doubt if we can ever know.
Tim Murphy
-----Original Message-----
From:
Behalf Of David Stowe
Sent: Sunday, 17 June 2007 4:04 PM
To: Robert
Cc: Birding Aus
Subject: Humingbird
Hi all
Firstly, thank you all very much for your help with the ID.
A couple of people have asked for more specific location.
The birds were in San Berdnadino county, 70 miles south
east of LA.
Hope that helps.
At the moment the winning bid seems to be Black-chinned but Anna's is
also in the running for some.
Thanks again everyone!
Cheers
Dave
On 17/06/2007, at 8:32 AM, Robert wrote:
> Top o'the mornin to all you birders:- I managed to contact a close
> friend of mine and TOP N.American birder re. the photographed
> hummingbird. He was able to download the photographs of the bird
> and in his opinion, although not absolutely certain - because of
> the quality of the photographs - he thinks the bird is either Black-
> chinned or Anna's. Because of the situation i.e. a garden instead
> of desert, his opinion is Black-chinned. I stand corrected - and
> congratulations to all those who said Black-chinned. Cheers
> Robbie Brown.
> www.birding-aus.org
> birding-aus.blogspot.com
>
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
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