Subject: [Tweeters] Black-chinned X Rufous Hummingbird hybrid
Date: Jul 16 14:49:36 2013
From: Michael Woodruff - crazybirder98 at hotmail.com


We have had an apparent hybrid male BCHU X RUHU coming to our Spokane feeders for a couple of days. My dad Roger Woodruff first spotted this hummingbird last summer but it did not stick around long enough to get good photos or to get a solid identification. It is truly an odd hummingbird to see. This year, while I was home for a few days, it showed up again.

I posted a collection of photos from 7/14/13 to my flickr website:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nightjar/

I would be very interested in any further comments on the ID of this bird. Please send both to me and to my dad at rdwoodruff AT gmail.com. Looking at Birds of North America online, I do not see previous listed records of this cross.

A few things to note when looking at the photos: gorget is somewhere between a BCHU and a RUHU.....very pink in person. The gorget does stop a bit below the bill, which is indicative of BCHU influence. In the photo showing the bird's back and tail, substantial rufous is evident. Little bits of rufous seem to be around the face and wings as well. It flicks its tail much less than a regular BCHU. I obtained a sound recording of the call if anybody wants to analyze that.

Cheers,
Michael Woodruff
Spokane, WA