Friday, March 27, 2009

First of spring Rufous!!

Tuesday I saw my first of season Rufous hummingbird!! Since then two males have become daily visitors to are feeders along with the Annas hummers. The Rufous seem a lot smaller than the Annas. This little guy was really thirsty!

What a pretty little bird.


4 comments:

Warren Baker said...

Well done on the migrant Hummer Connor. Spring really has started now huh ?

NW Nature Nut said...

In years past I hardly ever see the Rufous interested in my feeders. This year I saw the first one in my garden on March 20, and every since then they have been buzzing all over the yard (i hear their motors) and using the feeders. I think maybe it is because the flowers are behind blooming this year. Usually the feeder action really drops off for me this time of year and I discontinue the feeders since I have so many flowers. But, they are still coming, so I keep the feeders going. They sure are fun to watch! Enjoy!

teachlatin said...

Hi Connor,

I saw a couple of hummingbirds in Mexico--either Anna's or Costa, they were gone too fast to get a good ID. Yours is really cool!

We also saw brown boobies, brown pelicans and Magnificent Frigatebirds. The Frigatebirds are SO cool. My sister used them to teach me all kinds of bird vocabulary: F-birds are sexually bimorphic, which means you can tell the difference in males and females, which is rare in sea birds. Also, they are klepto-parasites (my new favorite word!), which means they steal stuff other birds catch, because f-birds have no oil gland to waterproof their feathers. If they get wet, they drown.

Anyway, cool blog!

Later,

Gretchen

North West Birds said...

Warren: Spring is here!

Michele: Last year the Rufous hummers weren't interested in my feeders either but for some reason they really like our yard this year! I haven't had any females yet. We have some amazing smelling flowers that they really like. They have such vibrant colors! Have you seen the goldfinches lately?!

Gretchen: They might have been costa's hummers because looking in their range map it seems that costa's are more common. Although seeing an annas would be possible.
If you have hummer feeders or flowers you should be seeing the Rufous any day now.

Really? Brown boobies and Frigatebirds? I saw brown pelicans in Florida but seeing a Frigatebird sounds so cool!!

I guess bald eagles are klepto-parasites.

I didn't know about the oil gland thing!

Thanks for stopping in!