Greetings from the heat wall of the Midwest! Finally getting settled back in after our long trip – had to harvest my yard for the second time yesterday and finally appears to be tamed..for the time being. Along with the catch-up work around the homestead, the body had been quite upset its relative “time-off” from training is over. Back on the road now including two-a-days whenever possible. Typically there is a slow(er) transition to the high heat and humidity typical of the area allowing the internal thermostats to readjust and condition for the mid-year training and races. Being gone for two months, this has been an abrupt introduction and basically getting sweat-spanked on the outings even with the early mornings and darkness sessions. This is a bit tricky for me as you recall from my previous race posts as my internal thermostat is damaged, so I have to be careful not to go over that fine knife edge between training and…well, ambulance. Imagine running with Linda’s voice in your head “Make good choices!“. To my credit, I did pass up this weekend’s big ultra-race (CMAR link here) as hard as it is to admit, just not ready for that distance with the heat or the ankle – next year, no question as I need redemption for that last DNF.
Speaking of Linda, Monday will be our 35th anniversary and just over 37 years since we met on our first day of our new careers – fingers crossed our bosses and HR do not find out we are in a relationship hehehe. Joking aside, we did keep it a secret for a VERY long time not knowing what that might do to our work situation. You can say or training class was really close…we and the 15 other individuals in the training program were all sworn to secrecy – many of which are still close friends today in retirement. In honor of that first day I laid eyes on Linda decades ago, I thought it would be fitting to go with a featured feathered friend that I will also never forget the first time I met and equally beautiful.
How is that for a stunner of a Hummer? Hit the jump to learn more about this new Hummingbird on the lifer list.
Guessing you probably noticed the high color theme in my recent posts from last year’s trip to Arizona. Some of our US viewable Hummers can be a bit difficult to identify – looking at you Black-Chinned (link here), Ruby-Throated (link here) and Anna’s (link here) and the reason I have not featured them a lot here at Intrigued.
Sure, when they let you see their gorgeous gorgets they get a lot easier to identify, but non-displaying males and those species that have less ornate females can make for several hours buried in reference books – especially when they are one off sightings that do not allow you use some of the referential characteristics.
I took the easy route with the last two featured Hummingbirds as the Broad-Billed and the Violet-Crowned Hummers are relatively easy to identify – Violets are unique in their own way and I hopefully gave you enough tips in the Broad-Billed post to separate them from a few of their similar counterparts. Taking the easy route again with today’s feature, the Rivoli’s Hummingbird.
Even though the Rivoli’s have different gender looks, it is just plain hard to confuse a Rivoli’s sighting as they are absolutely HUGE compared to the other Hummingbirds they hang out with in the southeast of Arizona and sliver of southwest New Mexico. I will admit, that can be a “relative” characteristic and guilty as charged when it comes to my lack of enthusiasm for them. However, you do not have to compare them side by side to realize just how large-bodied these Hummers are – simply look at the relationship to the typical nectar feeders. Monsters I tell ya, monsters ha.
You know I am still going to try and give you a direct comparison shot when I can – even in this case where it is a bit soft due to the inherit tight field of depth of The Beast. Going with it as it has the Broad-Billed Hummingbird which you were just introduced to a short time back. You can read this Broad-Billed’s mind – “Why is that Bat-hole drinking out of my feeder!!!!“.
Turns out that the Rivoli’s is the second largest of the Hummingbirds that visit the continental US. It falls short in stature only to the Blue-Throated Mountain-Gem which, ironically, also has a similar breeding region to the Rivoli’s. Linda and I went after a Blue that was reported in Madera Canyon while we were visiting on our recent trip through the west. Spoiler alert – we failed on that encounter, but we did get the pleasure of observing the Rivoli’s at Santa Rita Lodge – where this series of shots was taken the year before.
Might as well add that you can tell the different between these two large Hummers by the color of their gorgets – Blue-Throated have … wait for it… wait for it.. anticipation building… blue throats versus the aqua-green brilliance the Rivoli’s wield. As if that isn’t enough, our featured Hummer has a purplish crown (from what I can tell, Blues, do not have a crown) and a single white dot behind the eye you can see in these pictures compared to the two white lines behind and below the eye in the Blues. Fingers crossed one of these days I’ll be able to tin the Mountain-Gem and give you a good look at the mega-Hummer.
As mentioned above, the Rivoli’s females have a different look, paler greens which is pretty common in the Hummingbird family. They still have that white mark behind the eye and not to offend these females…are equally huge – in the kindest possible way of course. I get the sense this female would slap me right across the face with one of her wings if she heard me say that.
I do need to spend some time on the naming of this particular Hummingbird and maybe help explain the title of this post. According to Cornell, back in 1829, René-Primevère Lesson named this Hummingbird “in honor of the second Duke of Rivoli”, an Italian region. Cornell also provides the interesting tidbit that Lesson named the Anna’s species in honor of that same Duke’s wife. He was going to name it the Chunky Hummingbird after their daughter, but apparently she slapped him across the face. Then to comply with the American Birding Associations never-ending quest to confuse the hell out of us birders, the Rivoli’s was renamed the Magnificent Hummingbird which is what I have always known it as and caught the ire of some crotchety birder who took offense to my use of that name when I first saw it at Santa Rita Lodge. Apparently I missed the memo back in 2017 when the ABA decided we were getting to comfortable and changed the name BACK to Rivoli’s for the species that inhabits the region between here and Nicaragua.
(Image below added just to give you a good look at the deep green coloring on the back of the male Rivoli’s)
I can sense you just asked yourself the obvious question. The other Hummer in the split was given the name Talamanca which hangs in Costa Rica and down into Panama. I ask you…would it be too logical and not confusing enough to keep Magnificent for our variety and just give the new name to the one broken off…anyone…anyone….steps of soap box and slides it under the desk.
Was going to wrap this post up there, but really didn’t want to have you leave on a rant. Generally Intrigued does not mix field trips in a post. Part of that is simply due to “default procedure” as it tends to take us a long while before the images are culled and the survivors processed for reveal. The other more selfish reason is we tend to overload our posts with images anyway and adding more…well you might have to get a snack while reading the post. Breaking that guideline this time for one reason…we got some great looks at this Hummingbird on the recent trip to Madera and want to show them off!
These shots were taken as the sun was going down at Santa Rita Lodge – 1600 ISO and hand-holding the 400mm (full extent of the 200-400mm zoom) at the dicey 1/400 second shutter speed. The target at the time had just landed on a nearby branch and was literally “pulsing” its beautiful colors at me.
After a burst of shots, it moved on for the night. It took me a minute to catch my breath and turned to find a lady was standing behind me in wide-eyed amazement – “That was incredible!”. I responded “I sure hope I got that in the tin” knowing those shooting conditions made it unlikely. Sometimes you get lucky…and that happens to be EXACTLY what I did when I met Linda 37 years ago.
Happy Anniversary to Linda and to the rest of you, take care and stay tuned for more birding adventures.
Life Intrigued 