Somebody famous once said....
"Common species are more common than rare species."
And while it appears in a book on shorebirds, it applies to all
ID conundrums.

The bird you've photographed looks to be a typical Rufous female.
All males at this time of year will have complete gorgets. Very
occasionally the odd male caught in early March will have a few
scattered feathers still coming in, but nothing that approaches
a female appearance. Juvenile males will not appear until around
June 1.

If you are genuinely interested in hummingbird ID, you'll find
that very few general field guides provide adequate illustrations,
Sibley is close, but most others are pretty sad.

You may want to invest in one of the following:

Howell, S.N.G. 2002. Hummingbirds of North America. Nature
World (Academic Press), San Diego, CA.

Williamson, S.L. 2001. Hummingbirds of North America
(A Peterson Guide). Houghton-Mifflin, Boston.

I suppose, in a perfect world, one field guide would be enough
to get the job done, but what would we do with all the rest of the
space on the shelf...



Subject: Hummingbird ID please?
From: Marian Murdoch <marianmurdoch AT yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 19:30:33 -0700 (PDT)

I took this photo today from my deck. Rufous females
don't have that big black area on the neck, according
to my books. Is this a female Allen's, or is it, as
one of my friends suggested, an immature male Rufous
starting to grow his gorget?

http://wildmaven.org/birdwatch/uhumm2.jpg

Marian Murdoch
Belfair, WA
marianmurdoch at yahoo.com

--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
celata at pacifier.com

Dusty Book of the Month: _The Hawks of North America_
http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/004483.html