Tag Archives: identification

A “new” hybrid hummingbird!

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I’m thrilled to announce the publication of a note in the latest issue of Western Birds describing a “new” hummingbird hybrid: Ruby-throated × Rufous!Apparent Hybrid Ruby-throated × Rufous Hummingbirds in Western Canada Western Birds 55(3):216-222, November 2024The inspiration for the article was a stunning adult male photographed in Beaver Mines, Alberta, by Gordon Peterson and initially accepted by the Alberta Bird Record Committee (ABRC) as a Broad-tailed Hummingbird. Gordon later photographed an adult female of this combination at his feeders, and searches of eBird and iNaturalist turned up additional examples photographed in Griffith Woods Park in Calgary and at a private home in Revelstoke, British Columbia. 

Broad-tailed is something of a “grail bird” in Canada, with only one indisputable record to date (an adult male in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba in May 2006). Dozens of other records have turned out to be drab juvenile female Rufous or hybrids involving Rufous or simply lacked persuasive documentation (“looked just like the picture in the field guide” doesn’t cut it).

Despite the disappointment of removing a species from Alberta’s bird list (for the time being, at least), ABRC members Jocelyn Hudon, Curator of Ornithology at Royal Alberta Museum, and David R. Scott, librarian at the University of Lethbridge, were enthusiastic about writing up this previously undescribed hybrid combination. We chose Western Birds, the journal of Western Field Ornithologists, to increase the article’s reach to the birding community and were grateful that the article was accepted with minimal revisions. Jocelyn and David were outstanding collaborators, and it was a pleasure and a privilege to work with them.  Thanks are also in order to the hard-working volunteers who review records submitted to eBird and the provincial bird record committees, contributors to eBird and iNaturalist whose submissions are the raw material for this kind of “armchair ornithology,” the supporters and administrators of these community science platforms, the members of Western Field Ornithologists, and the editors and reviewers of Western Birds.

The article, along with the rest of the issue, is free to read. Download it here (PDF).

Fall Befuddlers: Broad-tailed, Rufous/Allen’s, and Calliope

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“Female-plumaged” Broad-tailed, Rufous/Allen’s, and Calliope hummingbirds are often confused with one another during fall migration. Image © 2020 by Sheri L. Williamson. All rights reserved.

In fall migration, the similar plumages of juvenile female Rufous and Allen’s hummingbirds, female and juvenile male Broad-tailed Hummingbirds, and female and juvenile male Calliope Hummingbirds cause a lot of confusion, especially when they stray east of their usual migration routes.

Shape is one of the first clues for quickly separating these doppelgangers. Broad-taileds are long and relatively slim, with proportionally smaller heads, longer, often slightly decurved bills, longer wings and tails, and relatively broad primaries except for the outer two (P9-10). Rufous and Allen’s are relatively compact, big-headed, and barrel-chested with tapered outer primaries that give the folded wing a scythe-like shape. Calliopes have even bigger heads, plus shorter bills, shorter tails, and broad, curved outer primaries distinctly different from either Broad-tailed or Rufous/Allen’s. 

On the fanned tail, the amount and distribution of rufous coloration is important but variable within as well as between species. In juvenile female Rufous/Allen’s, R2 has rufous across the entire base or on both the inner and outer vanes divided by a stripe of green. In Broad-tailed, R2 is predominantly bright green with a partial border of rufous along the edge of the outer vane and variable black at the tip. The stubby tails of Calliopes are predominantly dull green, black, and white, with significantly less rufous in the outer four pairs of tail feathers than either Rufous/Allen’s or Broad-tailed (typically most conspicuous on the basal edges of R2-4 in juvenile males and adult females). The number of outer tail feathers with white tips is often helpful in distinguishing juvenile females (typically R2-5) from adult females and juvenile males (typically R3-5), but it’s not helpful in separating species.

There are other, more subtle clues to separating these often confusing species, but shape and tail pattern will resolve the vast majority of ID dilemmas.

The illustration above is styled after the all-new plates in the forthcoming successor to A Field Guide to Hummingbirds of North America in the Peterson Field Guide Series. The new guide will be published by Princeton University Press, tentatively scheduled for publication in early 2025.