Bird Watching: Hummingbird ID help, 1 by rntx22

rntx22 wrote:
Hello all, it's been a while. I have some pics from my vacation in Durango Colorado of the hummingbirds that swarmed the feeder at our cabin. I was wanting to try to ID them so I could submit my counts to Cornell's E-bird page (if you guys don't participate in this you should - they need help! Here's the site: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ )

There are quite a few shots, hopefully you can make them out enough. Those guys are tough to capture!!

In this first one, I am pretty sure the two orange ones on the left are a male and female Rufous hummingbird. I am leaning toward ruby throated hummers for the green ones.... but really I am not sure. I remember catching an occasional glimpse of red on their throats when they were "talking".

What is throwing me is that I have heard that sometimes rufous hummers have a green backed form... so maybe these are all rufous?? AGGHH. The orange and green ones did not seem to get along... the orange ones were more aggressive which is another reason I think they are Rufous.