It has been about two and half weeks since we embarked on our southern migration and I have to admit, my batteries are starting to drain. Each day has pretty much been hardcore birding from sunup to sundown. On those few days when the birds are in short supply, I’ve been able to squeeze in some long runs just to keep the legs and lungs from getting soft. For supposed retirement, this sure seems a lot like work ha. The good news is I’m now up over 250 unique species for the year including around 6 lifers on this Texas trip. Today’s featured feathered friend was a new lifer back in January of 2023 and with a bit of luck managed to tin it at the same place this year.
Hit the jump to read more about this rufous speed demon.
There is a downside and upside to living in the Midwest when it comes to Hummingbirds. On the negative scale we only have one damn Hummingbird. Granted, the Ruby-Throated is rather cute when it flashes the reds, but you can only get excited so many times when walking out on the porch and seeing them beat the crap out of each other for feeder dominance – reminds me of the days playing “King of the Hill” on snow pile days on the school playground or the dirt pile days, or the leaf pile days, eh pretty much find any elevated perch and we’d start throwing our friends off it.
Now, the positive side of single choice is we do not have to spend a lot of time in reference manuals to figure out what creature is sucking down the sugar water. (link here). Not at Arizona levels, but things get a bit more interesting in southern Texas as a few more options are added to the potential encounter list. Along with the Ruby-Throated, we usually find the Black-Chinned (link here) and one of my favorites, the Buff-Bellied (link here). It was a huge surprise when this rufous colored variety showed up while staking out a feeder at the Laguna Vista Nature Trail.
At first I thought it was just light filtering through the rather dense foliage around the feeder that was causing the strange color hues on this new arrival. Then a quick chimp at the back of the camera immediately changed that first impression. There were eBird reports that implied the Rufous Hummingbird was around those parts so I had done some quick pre-reference checks just to have a rough idea if it appeared in front of me in the field…and there it was.
Fired off a rapid set of tins and turned to the birder next to “Is that the Ru”. Before getting the rest of the name pushed out the response was “Yes”. Guessing he noticed how hard I was struggling to hold back the excitement and wanted to quickly put an end to the suspense ha. Relayed the great news to Linda in my best cool, calm, collected, mature, subdued, nonchalant, not a crazy birder voice. Don’t think it worked as I could see it in her eyes. “Crazy birder gonna go snap happy and now I’ll be stuck here until the bird leaves or he runs out of digital space – either way I’m not getting lunch”.
She is rarely wrong with here assessment as she is an official card carrying SoB (Spouse of Birder). In my defense, these are not the easiest birds to get in the tin and this particular specimen wasn’t concerned about my frustration. It didn’t help that the other two types of Hummers were not too keen to share with this orangy intruder and were intent on throwing it “off the hill” so to speak.
Eventually a few decent shots made it into the tin and decided it was time to address the elephant in the blind – Linda’s weakening patience. Trust me, nobody wants a hangry Linda…just saying.
Time for some background on our auburn specimen. The Rufous Hummingbird is a western centric species that are classified as a long distant migrate. They winter in South American and then migrate up to their breeding grounds in our northwestern states and up through Canada and southern Alaska. They hang to the coast on their way up and take a more Rocky Mountain path back. According to Cornell’s website, they shouldn’t be anywhere near South Padre Island (Laguna Vista is just west of SPI on the mainland), especially in January, yet that is exactly where we found it again on this recent trip.
I do find Cornell’s range maps to be overally restrictive vs the sightings maps on ebird, which in this case includes much more of Texas and even healthy sightings a lot further east. For those not aware, Cornell’s site does give you both, simply hit the Sightings Map link at the top of the Maps page.
A quick look at Cornell’s interesting facts page revealed a surprise – they are considered “One of the feistiest hummingbirds in North America”. This was not the behavior I have seen at my two encounters at Laguna Vista feeders. In fact, quite the opposite. The Black-Chinned and the Ruby-Throated were definitely holding their own against the Rufous and the reason why Linda’s patience was being tested was this specimen was getting very few unmolested attempts at the syrup.
The Rufous can look similar to the Allen’s Hummingbird and their ranges can overlap especially during migration. I have personally never seen an Allen’s, but one distinguishing field marker is the width of their tail feathers. Allen’s have narrow tail feathers where the Rufous has much wider ones. Incredibly pleased I was able to get the shot above which clearly identifies this specimen. Also gives you a chance to see how stunning their coloring is with the sun lighting up those feathers.
Well, time to finally get some well earned sleep. Up and at ’em early tomorrow morning in hopes of getting a very large, loud and endangered white bird. Most of them have already headed to Canada, but a few have been spotted hanging around – fingers crossed. Take care everyone and apologies for being so behind on responding to comments and reading your posts.
Wildlife Intrigued 
Fantastic captures. Happy Easter!
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Thank you Luisella and Happy Easter to you and yours as well. Appreciate you dropping in.
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Thanks.
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💛
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Thank you, appreciate you coming by and glad you enjoyed the post.
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Lovely captures B.
Surprised hummingbirds go all the way to Alaska, always thought of them as tropical birds.
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Thank you B.! I could have used a bit more reach on the original captures but I’ll take what I got in the tin. We get a fair amount into the interior of the country, but Arizona/NM really gets the lion’s share of the varieties. By you are right, very few hit our most northwestern state, especially ones that winter so far south. Happy Easter to you and yours!
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Hummer fun at the feeder. You have shot lots of birds this year.
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Hummer fun never gets old (but Linda’s angry stomach does hehehehe). The birding front is starting to shape up, before this trip I was nearly 100 birds down from last year’s pace at this time, but now managed to claw my way back to dead even at 258. Problem is the birds are getting scarcer and having to work a LOT more to get new ones. About a week left in the trip, so hoping I can get a few more checks before we run like a bat out of hell to get home before “The Darkening”. Safe travels as you make your way into Texas for it.
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The great darkening and yet another end of the world is at hand.
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True. I was just wondering if there was a Heaven’s Gate cult for this space event.
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Always weird groups out for eclipses. When we had the annular eclipse in 2011, there was a group of new agers on the hill next to us who were dancing, drinking who knows what, doing drugs and acting weird.
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Always something it seems.
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First, I hope you found Linda some sustenance; we need to keep our bird whisperers happy. Second, nice Rufous. Based on your data I need to review to see if the Allen’s we captured in CA were in fact Allen’s or Rufous. Can 300 be far away now? Maybe 400 this year?
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Tru Dat! Her angry stomach has been appropriate addressed – mental note, take a pocket full of goldfish crackers when we go out together ha. If you took a similar looking bird in Cali you definitely need to check if it’s an Allens as you would be in their overlapping migration region for sure. I’ve scaled back my expectations to 300 for this year based on how things are progressing. I’ve made it back to 258 as of now which puts me on the exact pace as of last year, but based on the field plans for this year it will still be a lot of effort just to get the remaining 40 or so. I did make a promise to Linda that I would scale back my races next year if I finally get that 100K successfully checked off at the end of this year – added incentive so she doesn’t let me wimp out like the previous years ha. If that happens, then 400 would definitely be back in play.
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Good to know. I think there are a couple of locations where you could easily get the 40 you need. Is Atu still closed to visitors?
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Well, they no longer have scheduled flights there so unless you are good swimmer it might be a bit difficult to get there. Cut into that number on the last days of the trip, but will likely need to take a few short trips to crest over the 300 goal line. Now Ron is definitely in trouble as he had to miss meeting us down south this year.
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Charters! Get the corporate Jet gassed up and read to go.
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Hahahaha.
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Is the bird count tied to the “ball drop”? Put a tune to this verse and those birds will be a flying your way…..” Time is on my side, yes it is
Time is on my side, yes it is
Now you always say
That you want to be free
But you’ll come running back (said you would baby)
You’ll come running back (I said so many times before)
You’ll come running back to me.”
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Our Average Year efforts are tied to the ball drop and even though there are 9 solid months left I am getting a bit worried as I’ve missed a few birds down here in Texas. I have a week left to make some of that up, but pressure is certainly on contrary to the extra time the Stones have ha … although Father Time has take one of them now and the others are looking a little haggard. Nice selection of a song, my all time favorite band growing up was the Stones and as soon as I started reading the lyrics the music started playing in my head. Thanks for coming by Jerry, and jogging the memory of a great song.
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Attribution, Genius website and a group called the Stones. Don’t want no trouble with the copyright police.
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Ha, no worries Jerry, at this point I can probably quote any Stones lyric and get pretty close on the drums with a few of them. If they give us any hassle I’ll point to the $300 per seat of unused No Security tour tickets I got stuck with thanks to coming down with chicken pox the day of the concert when I was in my 30s. That one hurt.
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I don’t care if they don’t know the words, Hummers are just straight up fun to watch.
Trying to photograph them – check dictionary under “frustrating”. Your images prove it CAN be done. Kudos.
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Ha, absolutely agree – my arms were like Jello in the brief encounter we had. All I can say is thank god for the digital revolution, I probably would not have even tried if I had film loaded up – nothing was more frustrating that waiting a week to get the tins processed only to find out you executed slightly better than a finger painting. Take care and assuming some of the SA migrants are hitting ground near you about now.
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Great images, and great stamina to stay focused on that feisty little fellow! I had a Rufous and a Ruby fighting it out in my backyard here in the Houston area 2 years ago, and have some (weak) images to show for it. But that’s the only one I’ve seen. I love the 3 little gleaming gorget feathers at his neck – when his mating colors really come in, he will be radiant!
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Thank you Sam…we won’t mention the number of shots that went into the digital circular bin. According to the info Tanja provided from her CO backyard, I’m putting my bets on the Rufous over the Ruby ha! I also like those few gleaming gorget feathers – now I want to see the full ensemble. Appreciate you coming by Sam and good luck at Dauphin.
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We are not supposed to have a loggerhead shrike here, but they are. Photos of one who has come at least the last two years to the same location were confirmed to be. a loggerhead I think by Cornell- Ebird. I guess either some wildlife don’t follow the maps or they go where they happily find food and less predators, etc.
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There is definitely some leeway in the Cornell region maps vs the eBird purple maps, but even then those of-course birds will show up from time to time. I think they remember where they end up and somehow find their way back. Similar to a Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher that showed up for like 3 years at a substation out in the middle of the country an hour or so away. Have to admit, I did appreciate the reduced travel time to get it checked off those years – didn’t show up the last couple. One of the things that makes birding so enjoyable I guess. Appreciate you coming by Sharon and don’t stare directly at the eclipse ha.
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I need to be at work that day. Not planning on even looking out the window at the eclipse. Yes, if the bird comes closer to you its a box you can tick without making a trip to try to get it. The loggerhead has been to the same place 2 to three winters. Don’t know how long that will last. It is interesting to find its prey impaled. I have only found insects, but others have seen snakes, etc.
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I am not that excited either. We made a point to get home so we didn’t have to deal with the traffic we got caught in for the last eclipse – took us 3 hours just to get around Chicago. I’ll be out running so I’ll probably take a look just for the record. Hopefully Brad can give us a report.
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Congratulations, Brian, you should be very pleased with your photos of this hummingbird, showing it at rest, with its wings beating, and with its tail spread. I can second the “feisty” part of the description. By the time the Rufous Hummingbirds pass through Colorado after breeding season on their way back down, they will try to control not only one feeder in the garden, but all of the feeders. We call them bullies for good reason!
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Oh, you are right, they would come directly through your area on the way back – didn’t even think of that as I was writing it. I thought the Ruby-Throated were bullies until I learned about this species, at least the Rubies tend to just guard one of our feeders at a time, the Rufous just doesn’t play nice with others ha. Thanks for dropping by Tanja and confirming the behavior for me!
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