Hello All
About 10:30 this morning on a bike ride on the Foothills Trail, I found a
female COSTA'S HUMMINGBIRD. I had rather incredible profile views of the
bird, juxtaposed literally side-by-side with two separate female Anna's
Hummingbirds. Differences in structure and plumage were very obvious given
these views for about 2 minutes. It was decidedly smaller than either of the
Anna's. The tail was short, not quite reaching the primary tips when
perched. The head was relatively large compared to the small, dumpy body.
The face pattern was classic, with a clean whitish throat, soft gray
auriculars, short blackish "mask," white post-ocular teardrop and pale
stripe wrapping around the auriculars. The back was dingy, gray-green while
the underparts were off-white with plain flanks. As a final confirmation,
the bird called for about 15 seconds with a soft high-pitched "spit" note.

The location was exactly 1 mile west of South Prairie. Drive on Pioneer Way
until you come to the large dairy farm in the field to the north. On the
south side of the road is an unnamed street that cuts over to South
Prairie-Carbon River Road. The hummingbirds were feeding in hardhack spirea
and flycatching from the willows near this intersection. I do not know of
any feeders nearby and I don't normally see hummingbirds in this area. The
hummers came in readily to pishing, but they left the area after about 10
minutes and I was not able to relocate any hummers after that.

Other highlights today were few, but it was a very active day. Sparrows were
around in especially good numbers. See count below.

Cheers
Charlie Wright
Bonney Lake, Washington
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Location: Foothills Trail, Pierce County
Observation date: 9/30/06 Duration: 4.5 hours
Distance covered: 6.2 miles

Canada Goose 1
Mallard 54
Common Merganser 3
Great Blue Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 6
Bald Eagle 1
Red-tailed Hawk 8
Merlin 1
Virginia Rail 1
Killdeer 2
Wilson's Snipe 3
Glaucous-winged Gull 1
Glaucous-winged Gull X Western Gull 1
Rock Pigeon 12
Anna's Hummingbird 3
Costa's Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-breasted Sapsucker 12
Downy Woodpecker 13
Northern Flicker 8
Pileated Woodpecker 3
Hutton's Vireo 5
Steller's Jay 14
American Crow 38
Common Raven 4
Violet-green Swallow 80
Barn Swallow 4
Black-capped Chickadee 90
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 29
Bushtit 40
Brown Creeper 3
Bewick's Wren 8
Winter Wren 6
Marsh Wren 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet 27
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 8
American Robin 134
Varied Thrush 1
European Starling 65
American Pipit 7
Cedar Waxwing 18
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 23
Black-throated Gray Warbler 4
Common Yellowthroat 5
Western Tanager 1
Spotted Towhee 9
Savannah Sparrow 2
Fox Sparrow 6
Song Sparrow 81
Lincoln's Sparrow 21
White-crowned Sparrow 3
Golden-crowned Sparrow 31
Dark-eyed Junco 15
Red-winged Blackbird 7
Western Meadowlark 5
Brewer's Blackbird 4
Purple Finch 13
House Finch 28
Pine Siskin 9
American Goldfinch 57
Evening Grosbeak 14
House Sparrow 35

Number of species: 63

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 (http://www.ebird.org).