a Western visitor

Yesterday I got an e-mail from one of the readers of this blog about a hummingbird at her feeder in Sag Harbor. I wrote her back, pointing out that, while it was not impossible for a Ruby-throated Hummingbird to be hanging around in the second week of October, she might also look closely to see if it could be a Western visitor -- always a good possibility with a late hummingbird. She immediately came back describing it as 'rusty' with a white area on its chest and flash of orange on its throat. To make a long story short, it was a Selasphorus hummer, most likely a female or sub-adult male Rufous!

In spite of the rain this morning, I went up to have a look at this rather exotic creature. This is not the first time it has turned up on Long Island but it is the first one that I have seen in these parts. The Rufous is the most northerly -- and presumably one of the hardier -- of the huge tribe of hummingbirds. Depending on the source, there are between 325 and 340 species of hummers of which only a couple of dozen have ever occurred in the U.S., mostly near the Mexican border. The Rufous, however, breeds from southeastern Alaska south to northern California and traditionally migrates through the Rocky Mountains to winter in Mexico. What is it doing in Noyac? Well you may ask. In recent years, it has started to winter in the U.S. on the Gulf Coast, in Florida, and now further north, helped no doubt by climate change as well as the ubiquity of subtropical gardens and hummingbird feeders in those places. Is this a lost bird with a bad compass that should be in Mexico by now? Or is it a winter arrival that will hang around until the spring and then return West to breed? We may never know but, whatever the explanation, it was an amazing sight. As is often the case with hummingbirds, the bird had a favorite perch some distance away where it would stage before coming in to feed. And, even in the rain, it would return, like clockwork, every twenty minutes to feed. Although the feeder had a perch, it much preferred to feed in its classic helicopter flight.

I should also mention that, like most of the hummers that turn up in the northeast, this one is either a young bird or possibly an adult female. In this plumage, the Rufous Hummingbird is virtually indistinguishable from Allen's Hummingbird, a native of coastal California (there is a tiny difference in one of the tail feathers but it is impossible to see except in very unusual circumstances). So there is a chance that this bird is an Allen's and it should be properly (or more cautiously) be referred to as a Rufous/Allen's. Still, the odds are that it's a Rufous.

This hummingbird (whichever one it was) chose a nice spot to hang out and not only because its host has hummingbird feeders. The surroundings are lush and leafy and the feeders are on a deck under an overhang so the birds can feed even in the rain. Other birds at the seed feeders included Red-bellied and Downy Woodpeckers, both nuthatches, Titmice and Chickadees, Pine Siskins and a few Goldfinches. A dramatic moment occurred when a bird hit a pane of glass with a thump and was stunned. It was a vireo but which one? Wingbars, yellow underparts, white throat, olive back, somewhat grayish head with yellow spectacles. It was a first-winter White-eyed Vireo with a dark iris and, to my mind, very different from the Bell's Vireo which I have now seen twice in our neck of the woods. Oh yes, the stunned bird eventually recovered and flew off.

Eric Salzman