Subject: Comments on the Gearhart Broad-billed Hummingbird
Date: Nov 7 16:55:41 2001
From: Mike Patterson - celata at pacifier.com


The following are my comments on the BROAD-BILLED
HUMMINGBIRD seen and photographed last month at
Gearhart.

http://home.pacifier.com/~mpatters/obrc/bbhu20011014.html

Broad-billed Hummingbird (Cyanthus latirostris)
Number of individuals, sex, age, plumage: 1 sub-adult male
Locality: Gearhart, Clatsop Co.,OR
Date: Oct 6-14, 2001 hr
Habitat: residential backyard
Comments on photos provided by Sue Hinton:
Sue provided me with print copies of the photographs she
took Oct 14, 2001. I scanned them at 1440dpi, adjusted
for brightness and sharpened using Adobe Photoshop.

The bright red bill and blue iridescent feathers of the
throat and crown clearly lead one to male Broad-billed
Hummingbird. The gray belly and apparent blotchiness
at the outer margins of the throat are consistent with
older sub-adult males. There are several photographs in
Tyrrell (1985) of older subadult males which show the same
plumage characters. Broad-bills are early breeders, often
as early as January (Johnsgard 1997). Pyle (1997) states,
"...chin, throat, and underparts gray, with few (May-Aug)
to many (Nov-Apr) iridescent blue or dark green feathers,
becoming uniformly blue and green by May."

Johnsgard, P.A. 1997. The Hummingbirds of North America.
Smithsonian University Press, Washington DC.

Pyle, P. 1997. Identification Guide to North American
Passerines (part I). Slate Creek Press, Bolinas, CA.

Tyrrell,E.Q. 1985. Hummingbirds: their life and behavior.
Crown Publishers, Inc.New York.


--
Mike Patterson When I despair, I remember
Astoria, OR that all through history
celata at pacifier.com the way of truth and love have always won.
There have been tyrants, and murderers,
and for a time they can seem invincible,
but in the end they always fall.
Think of it...always.
- Mahatma Gandhi

http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/bird/bird.html