It has been about two and half weeks since we embarked on our southern migration and I have to admit, my batteries are starting to drain. Each day has pretty much been hardcore birding from sunup to sundown. On those few days when the birds are in short supply, I’ve been able to squeeze in some long runs just to keep the legs and lungs from getting soft. For supposed retirement, this sure seems a lot like work ha. The good news is I’m now up over 250 unique species for the year including around 6 lifers on this Texas trip. Today’s featured feathered friend was a new lifer back in January of 2023 and with a bit of luck managed to tin it at the same place this year.
Hit the jump to read more about this rufous speed demon.
There is a downside and upside to living in the Midwest when it comes to Hummingbirds. On the negative scale we only have one damn Hummingbird. Granted, the Ruby-Throated is rather cute when it flashes the reds, but you can only get excited so many times when walking out on the porch and seeing them beat the crap out of each other for feeder dominance – reminds me of the days playing “King of the Hill” on snow pile days on the school playground or the dirt pile days, or the leaf pile days, eh pretty much find any elevated perch and we’d start throwing our friends off it.
Now, the positive side of single choice is we do not have to spend a lot of time in reference manuals to figure out what creature is sucking down the sugar water. (link here). Not at Arizona levels, but things get a bit more interesting in southern Texas as a few more options are added to the potential encounter list. Along with the Ruby-Throated, we usually find the Black-Chinned (link here) and one of my favorites, the Buff-Bellied (link here). It was a huge surprise when this rufous colored variety showed up while staking out a feeder at the Laguna Vista Nature Trail.
At first I thought it was just light filtering through the rather dense foliage around the feeder that was causing the strange color hues on this new arrival. Then a quick chimp at the back of the camera immediately changed that first impression. There were eBird reports that implied the Rufous Hummingbird was around those parts so I had done some quick pre-reference checks just to have a rough idea if it appeared in front of me in the field…and there it was.
Fired off a rapid set of tins and turned to the birder next to “Is that the Ru”. Before getting the rest of the name pushed out the response was “Yes”. Guessing he noticed how hard I was struggling to hold back the excitement and wanted to quickly put an end to the suspense ha. Relayed the great news to Linda in my best cool, calm, collected, mature, subdued, nonchalant, not a crazy birder voice. Don’t think it worked as I could see it in her eyes. “Crazy birder gonna go snap happy and now I’ll be stuck here until the bird leaves or he runs out of digital space – either way I’m not getting lunch”.
She is rarely wrong with here assessment as she is an official card carrying SoB (Spouse of Birder). In my defense, these are not the easiest birds to get in the tin and this particular specimen wasn’t concerned about my frustration. It didn’t help that the other two types of Hummers were not too keen to share with this orangy intruder and were intent on throwing it “off the hill” so to speak.
Eventually a few decent shots made it into the tin and decided it was time to address the elephant in the blind – Linda’s weakening patience. Trust me, nobody wants a hangry Linda…just saying.
Time for some background on our auburn specimen. The Rufous Hummingbird is a western centric species that are classified as a long distant migrate. They winter in South American and then migrate up to their breeding grounds in our northwestern states and up through Canada and southern Alaska. They hang to the coast on their way up and take a more Rocky Mountain path back. According to Cornell’s website, they shouldn’t be anywhere near South Padre Island (Laguna Vista is just west of SPI on the mainland), especially in January, yet that is exactly where we found it again on this recent trip.
I do find Cornell’s range maps to be overally restrictive vs the sightings maps on ebird, which in this case includes much more of Texas and even healthy sightings a lot further east. For those not aware, Cornell’s site does give you both, simply hit the Sightings Map link at the top of the Maps page.
A quick look at Cornell’s interesting facts page revealed a surprise – they are considered “One of the feistiest hummingbirds in North America”. This was not the behavior I have seen at my two encounters at Laguna Vista feeders. In fact, quite the opposite. The Black-Chinned and the Ruby-Throated were definitely holding their own against the Rufous and the reason why Linda’s patience was being tested was this specimen was getting very few unmolested attempts at the syrup.
The Rufous can look similar to the Allen’s Hummingbird and their ranges can overlap especially during migration. I have personally never seen an Allen’s, but one distinguishing field marker is the width of their tail feathers. Allen’s have narrow tail feathers where the Rufous has much wider ones. Incredibly pleased I was able to get the shot above which clearly identifies this specimen. Also gives you a chance to see how stunning their coloring is with the sun lighting up those feathers.
Well, time to finally get some well earned sleep. Up and at ’em early tomorrow morning in hopes of getting a very large, loud and endangered white bird. Most of them have already headed to Canada, but a few have been spotted hanging around – fingers crossed. Take care everyone and apologies for being so behind on responding to comments and reading your posts.
Life Intrigued 