I should start carrying my camera out with me, but it was in the house and by the time I got back outside I couldn't find the hummer. It was a female, very teeny. It had reddish or brownish bill with a dark tip and her bill appeared a little wider than normal. There was a stripe on her head and her throat was striped. She was at the feeder in the live oak, it just barely hangs below a branch for the hummers that don't like to come out in the open and eat. She flew up and perched for a few seconds on a small branch then she was gone. She made little tweet tweet sounds and I heard her a couple more times but could never locate where she was.
Strange hummer in the yard
No one has any ideas what it was? I've been watching to see if she comes back but haven't seen her.
Maybe the White Eared hummer?
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/nature/birding/hummingbird_roundup/
Broad-billed hummer is another posibility.
True but without the head stripe....although the white eared doesn't show neck stripping. hmmmm??
This looks a lot like my bird, but it has lots of the striping on it's neck that I don't see in the picture. http://nhm.ku.edu/komar/imagegallery/cacahuatique/hires/0a9a_014hires.jpg
Here are the stripes I'm talking about, like on a calliope http://www.naturalsciences.org/nchummers/calliope_Campbell_magenta.jpg
hmmmm...I'm stumped.
I had it narrowed down to either broad-billed or white eared because of the bill color, but we don't get enough of either variety thru here for me to be positive.
We are right on the coast, right in the flyway and we have "fall out" in the spring, two of them. That's when the birds hit land after crossing the Gulf and they just fall out of the sky. Usually they stop on the Island, but this year they landed on the mainland and passed up the Island for some reason.
Then in the late summer thru fall more come back thru heading south. Never know what's going to show up, they don't stay for long usually. Some days I fill the feeders and the food is gone by nightfall, some days there aren't hardly any birds.
Susie, from your description I would say you had an immature male Broad-billed hummer. No way to be positive without a picture.
Wow, I will watch for him, maybe he will come back! I never even thought about an immature male. I've been taking my camera into the yard with me, watch if I leave it on the kitchen table, he will show up!