WESTERN STATES HUMMINGBIRDS VOL. 13

Another one of the Calliope.

I copied this info from All About Birds-


"The smallest bird in North America north of Mexico, the Calliope Hummingbird inhabits mountain areas of the northwestern United States. It is the smallest long-distance avian migrant in the world, spending its winters in Mexico."

Love that Calliope!

He's gorgeous!!!

THEY'RE BAA...AAACK!

All this week (week starting April 10th) juuuust as I was thinking that it was too early for these little fellas here in Bryan, TX.

Then SURPRISE SURPRISE SURPRISE! One...then another different kind...then yet another different type. ALL this week they have been coming to enjoy the feeder in my front window!!! Today 4/16/11 about 5:35pm had two at once!!!

WAHOOOOO! WHOOP! WHOOP!

We had 90% solar screens full window type put on the window...so they can hardly if at all see in but we can see out.

YA GOTTA LUV'EM!

Congratulations, Hustonprincsess. All are late, arent' they?

Duc, you should be publishing your pics in the bird field guides they are so great!

Right-on Sharon. I'm with you.

Duc ,getting images of them in flight is very hard, and your have done a super job with them. Really beautiful!!!

Great shot of the Rufous, adel.

Duc, all wonderful, as always, but that middle shot of the Calliope is sensational. I agree with PNWMG about publishing you photos in field guides.

Here's a female Anna's.

Another female.

I forgot to thank you all for your nice comments on my photos.
This photo will show you how much smaller the Calliope is compared to an Anna's.

This one looked good with the red berries in the background. This is a Rufous.

This message was edited Apr 17, 2011 3:46 PM

Whoa! fabulous photos Duc. The contrast of the Calliope and an Anna is fascinating. Is it possible to be smaller than our usual hummingbird, Calliope proves it could. lol. And the Rufous coloring is out of this world!

Wow the Calliope is small! Great pics duc!

I'm so proud of this photo, my first identified female or juvenile Calliope. Our local Audubon authority said this is even more rare sight than my male. He was able to identify it because the wings are longer than the tail.

Here's a male Rufous.

This guy really was guarding his feeder and giving me lots of photo ops.

The rain drops didn't seem to bother him at all.

Here's one last photo of my male Calliope. He just stayed a couple days and then he was gone.

Fantastic!

Beautiful! Congratulations duc!

Congratulation on your female or juvie Calliope,.... way to go!!! Fantastic shots of them all, and I agree with the others, to get them published.

Male Rufous coming in for a night cap

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3

Glad you're still seeing this guy Adel. They sure are active little ones. He's got lots of pollen on his bill already. Is he getting it from your garden?

Here's an Anna's female taking a break.

Because of the lousy weather, I don' have much of a garden growing yet, but the fruit trees are in bloom.

It appears that I'm down to one hummer. This male Rufous is the only one I've seen for several days.

I'm going out on a limb putting this female on the western thread. I think it is a Black-chinned female. I have a pair of BC's and Ruby Throats in the yard. I can sex the females if they are perched- sometimes. Tail appears short on this one, a little curve to bill, wings can't be seen.

Great photo Red.

Adel, I hope more hummers will appear at your feeder. Your little guy is a cutie. Maybe the female is sitting on a nest. One minute I'll have over a dozen and an hour later they're gone for most of the day-very strange this year.

Red, I just get to see one Black-chinned a year and he should be here any day now-at least according to my calendar. Hope you're right about that female-she sure makes a beautiful photo.

As I said in the Daily thread, I had a third Calliope appear at my feeder a couple days ago. I haven't seen it since, but will keep watching for it.

Here's a look I got through the window when it finally stopped drinking the sugar water.

Here's one of my male Rufous'.

Here's another male Rufous.

Here's a group of Anna's and at least one Rufous from a few days ago.

This message was edited Apr 28, 2011 2:40 PM

Love your hummers duc!

Wonderful, duc.

I really enjoy going out west and seeing all the different hummers. At least I have two, most around here only have Ruby's.

A pic of the Black-chinned male. I had to re-crop it, but you can clearly see he is a BC.

Nice!