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Message from Oregon Birders On Line

From: Eugene Hunn <hunn at u.washington.edu>
To: Alvaro Patricio Jaramillo <jaramill at sfu.ca>
Cc: obol at gaia.ucs.orst.edu

Al,

We have that problem in Washington from time to time. There is one male
Allen's specimen at the UW Museum, collected near Seattle in 1894! I
have measured the tail feathers, so I believe it is in fact an Allen's.
George Gerdts and I had a territorial male with an entirely green back
near Seattle about ten years ago and observed it display and also were
able to photograph it as it spread its tail in stretching. It was either
a Rufous or a hybrid. I suspect hybridization is a distinct possibility,
but I know of no studies of what must be a broad contact zone along the
southern Oregon coast. The display seemed somewhat intermediate. Note
that most published accounts of the Rufous display flight are WRONG. I
have observed dozens of display flights in Washington and they do not
trace an ellipse. Rather they ascend ca 10 meters up, hover, then dive
nearly straight down, chattering (rather than the clear whine of the
Allen's) at the bottom of the dive as they pull out horizontally. They
then hover briefly before continuing horizontally ca 3 meters before
steeply ascending to repeat the performance. Quite different from Allen's
pendulum arc flight display. In any case, the tail feathers are
generally broader in Rufous and the 2nd rectrice is broad and distinctly
emarginate on the inner web. This is shown clearly on our photographs of
the Washington bird. Tail feather width, however, is a function of sex
and age as well.

Gene Hunn.

On Wed, 30 Mar 1994, Alvaro Patricio Jaramillo wrote:

> Hello birders.
>
> A couple of years ago, when I lived in Ontario, we stopped over at a hummingbird feeder on our way to Niagara Falls in the late fall. OUr quest was a _Selas
> phorus_ hummer that had been seen there. The bird came in and we all saw it
> well, it was a lifer for me, but since it was a female I could not know
> exactly which species it belonged to (Rufous or Allen's), the former being much
> more probable. So I have been eagerly awaiting the first Rufous Hummer here
> in Vancouver, to get a look at a Selasphorus that I could positively identify.
> I saw my first today, a beautiful male in the local park. As I was looking at
> it, the bird turned around and showed a completely green back!
> I assume that the bird today was a green-backed Rufous Hummer, as there
> are no records of Allen's for Canada, but how do I know? Being a neophite to
> the _Selasphorus_ problem I would like to know the status of these green-backed
> male Rufous Hummers, are they common? Do they become more common as one goes
> further south? What do Oregon birders call a rufous and what do they call a
> n Allen's?
> Any tips, ID hints or discussion of this topic will be appreciated.
>
>
> Al Jaramillo
> jaramill at sfu.ca
> Vancouver, B.C.
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