Birders, As Kayo Roy mentioned, yesterday I captured and banded the Selasphorus hummingbird in Niagara Falls, with the able assistance of Cindy Cartwright (thanks for making TWO trips to do this!). This bird has been coming to the feeders of Janice and Art Haines since September 2, and they have named her "Hannah". The number of reports in the "east" are a clear indication that such records are a rare but annual phenomenon, and the birds are definitely not lost! (See http://www.trochilids.com/USA/2003rual.html for a map of last winter's reports of eastern Rufous and Selasphorus sp.). Currently, there are 5 Selasphorus (2 confirmed Rufous) in Indiana, 1 Selasphorus in Minnesota, 1 Rufous in Michigan, and 3 Rufous in Ohio. Additionally, enough of these birds are recaptured each year to lay to rest the myth that they are all doomed to die when they visit our area. I recently recaptured a Rufous in Zanesville, OH that I banded at the same home last year where it was last seen December 27. Hard evidence, in the form of specimens of Rufous Hummingbirds dying from exposure to our winters, are in short supply (or in Ontario's case possibly nonexistent?), while there is ample evidence, in the form of banding recaptures, to support the idea that some do survive quite well. A few will die, of course, as is the case even in central Mexico, but blanket statements that they area all doomed is untenable with the current state of our knowledge and evidence. Healthy Rufous Hummingbirds in "the north" only require that we keep their sugar water (4:1 ratio) from freezing; they'll survive on their own with no other help from humans, as they've been doing for a long, long time.
A detailed report on the Niagara Falls Rufous Hummingbird will be submitted to the Ontario Bird Records Committee, along with in-hand photos taken, but I thought it might be of interest to post some information here on how the bird was identified. I will also send a couple of the in-hand photos to OFO to be included on their website. After much prior discussion, and review of some excellent photos (thanks Harold and Jean!), it was possible to determine that this bird was either a Rufous or Allen's Hummingbird, and most likely a female, with the age uncertain but possibly a hatch year (that is, hatched in summer 2004). In those photos, it was evident she was molting one of her primaries (Stivers photo), and appeared to be molting body feathers as well (Iron photo). Yesterday, the bird was showing 4 iridescent orange-red gorget feathers, where a week ago she was showing none. The bird was easily captured, as has been my typical experience where I've banded these birds in northern areas. Once in hand, the bill was examined for "corrugations", tiny wrinkles on the bill generally only visible with 10x magnification. The bird did show shallow corrugations on approximately the basal 60-70% of the upper mandible, which clearly indicated it was a hatch-year bird. Next, the wing and bill were measured. The wing length of 44.59 mm indicated the bird was indeed a female, regardless of whether it was a Rufous or Allen's. Also, the lack of rufous on the upper tail coverts, and restricted rufous on the base of the central tail feather, supported the conclusion of female (Stiles fig. 2). The tail was measured as 27 mm. Now, having confidently aged and sexed the bird, we needed to turn our attention to identification, which was done by examination and measurement of certain tail feathers. For reference, a paper published by Stiles in the The Condor in 1972 was used,. This reference continues to be the best available for distinguishing Rufous from Allen's Hummingbirds in-hand, and the appropriate use of this information involves first aging and sexing the bird, followed by species identification. A copy of this paper will also be forwarded to the OBRC. Known age and sex Rufous and Allen's Hummingbirds are best distinguished in-hand by measuring the widths of the central tail feather (r1) and the outer tail feather (r5), and noting the shape of the second tail feather from the center (r2). If a bird shows a clearly "notched" r2, then it is easily identified as a Rufous (Stiles fig. 3). The Niagara Falls bird showed an extremely subtle "notch" in-hand, as well as in photos, a condition that could be approached by some Allen's Hummingbirds. The shape of this notch was more suggestive of Rufous than Allen's, but alone would not be conclusive (Stiles fig. 2). So, the identification was in the hands of the measurements (Stiles table 1). It is important to note here briefly that there are two subspecies of Allen's Hummingbird. One is the widespread and migratory subspecies (Selasphorus sasin sasin) breeding from coastal northern California to coastal southern California and mainly migrating southward into Baja California, Mexico. The other is a more range-restricted and generally non-migratory subspecies (S. s. sedentarius), breeding on California's Channel Islands and the adjacent mainland (around Los Angeles). Sedentarius presents some problems, because it is intermediate between S. s. sasin and Rufous in some characters. And, while (S. s. sasin) has a shorter bill than Rufous, (S. s. sedentarius) has a longer bill! If sedentarius were entirely, well, sedentary, this would not be an issue. But, I've been told (N. Newfield, pers. comm.) that the first specimen of Allen's Hummingbird collected in Louisiana actually fits sedentarius! So, however remote the possibility, even compared with a vagrant Allen's (S. s. sasin), sedentarius must also be considered. So, how did the measurements stack up with Stiles? The width of the central tail feather (r1) on the Niagara Falls bird was measured as 8.29 mm. Immature female (HY-F) Rufous ranges from 7.8 - 9.5 mm. HY-F (S. s. sasin) Allen's ranges from 6.9 - 8.2 mm. HY-F (S. s. sedentarius) Allen's ranges from 7.3 - 8.4. So, this measurement is slightly above the range of (S. s. sasin) and near the upper size range of (S. s. sedentarius), while it is near the midrange for Rufous. This measurement is strongly suggestive of Rufous, but not conclusive. The width of the outer tail feather (r5) on the Niagara Falls bird was measured as 4.16 mm. Immature female (HY-F) Rufous ranges from 3.2 - 4.7 mm. HY-F (S. s. sasin) Allen's ranges from 2.4 - 3.3 mm. HY-F (S. s. sedentarius) Allen's ranges from 2.6 - 3.3 mm. Since this measurement falls well above the range for either subspecies of Allen's, this measurement is conclusive for Rufous. (It is also above the midrange for Rufous) For additional support, we can look at Wing Length (wing chord), Bill Length (exposed culmen), and Tail Length. This bird's Wing Length of 44.59 mm was longer than that of HY-F (S. s. sasin), but slightly below the upper range for HY-F (S. s. sedentarius), and above the midrange for Rufous. Wing Length suggests Rufous. This bird's Bill Length of 17.53 mm was near the upper limit for both Rufous and (S. s. sasin), but only slightly above the midrange for (S. s. sedentarius). Bill Length was not useful. This bird's Tail Length of 27 mm was 2 mm above the range of (S. s. sasin), and near the upper limit for Rufous. Unfortunately, Stiles does not provide tail measurements for HY-F (S. s. sedentarius). Tail length suggests Rufous. This Rufous Hummingbird was one of the more challenging (but not THE most challenging) I've had the priviledge of banding. I truly appreciate the hospitality of Janice and Art both to the bird, and the ~400 visitors that have seen her so far. I also am very grateful for Kayo Roy's efforts in all manner of logistics involving this bird, including getting me in touch with the homeowners so I could obtain permission to band their special bird. On release, "Hannah" returned to her feeders within 10 minutes, and is now in charge of the Haines' backyard once again. Reference: Stiles, F. G. 1972. Age and Sex Determination in Rufous and Allen Hummingbirds. The Condor 74: 25-32. (available as a PDF file from SORA: http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/index.php) Allen Chartier [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1442 West River Park Drive Inkster, MI 48141 Website: http://www.amazilia.net Michigan HummerNet: http://www.amazilia.net/MIHummerNet/index.htm
