Hi Tweets,

Gene Hunn writes:

>February 27 & 28 could well be early spring migrants.

I'd go further and say absolutely definitely they were early migrants, the
next ones back after the Tree and Violet-green Swallows. Part of the
appearance of them being out-of-season 'spring' birds in 'winter' is that
darn seasonal Birders' English again, resulting from the imposition of the
human calendar and its arbitrary divisons marked by solstices and equinoxes
onto the birds' maybe early/maybe late/maybe as usual/depends normal
movements. These are slightly early (~7-10 days) birds at the beginning of
their normal influx in the initial stages of the northbound migration.
There, that was easy, wasn't it? no calendar weirdness. Parenthetically, it
took a while, but finally managed to ditch the speculation that Rufous
Hummingbirds overwinter here: there's just no evidence for them doing so.
Incidentally, they seem to be arriving earlier at the same locations each
year over the last five or six years.

>The illustrations of
>female tails in the National Geo Guide contradict the id comment you quote,
>showing Rufous rather than Broad-tailed with the more extensive rufous based
>outer rectrices, and Rufous with the relatively more broadly rounded
>rectrices vis-a-vis Allen's.

Oh, good. This takes a weight off my mind, Gene. I was beginning to think my
Rufous/Allen's confusion about which female of what age had what width of
rufous on the rectrices when was personal insufficiency of understanding
when really it's a case of some authorities saying they're different in the
field and you can tell, and others saying no one can tell without in-hand
micrometer measurement, and still others saying ya can't tell most of them
without a blood-test period and even then. Good thing I'm just doing this
for a friend--shoulda stuck to those easy, simple gulls and shorebirds and
left dickiebirds to the sickest and most twisted, most obsessed hardcore ID
junkies to figure out. '-)))

>Smaller size favors Rufous/Allen's over
>Broad-tailed, which should be about the same size as Anna's (though I can't
>recall seeing them side by side). The new Western Peterson's confirms this.

According to Kaufman's Advanced Birding, "In body size the Broad-tailed
Hummingbird is not much larger than Rufous/Allen's, but its tail is much
larger, and with practice you can see this in the field." Hm, BTHU practice
is something we don't get a lot of in this town, stranger. None, actually,
and just two or three have ever made it to Canada, usually SE BC in June and
July, as I recall quite imperfectly.

Michael Price We aren't flying...we're falling with style!
Vancouver BC Canada -Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story
mprice at mindlink.net