I suspect we will still get more feedback but I wanted to provide a summary for those debating on whether or not to make the trip here. Most people have argued convincingly for Ruby-throated Hummingbird (but some very experienced western birders have also argued for Black-chinned). Below is a summary of what people sent to me or posted on FB. Thanks in particular to Lev Frid, Alvaro Jaramillo and Jon Ruddy for insightful comments (see Jon's commentary at http://eontbird.ca/?p=3802):
1. Black-chinned Hummingbirds are on average longer-winged. This bird appears long winged but this is affected by the bird's posture so is subjective. This feature heavily influenced our field identification of the bird. 2. The outer primary is often distinctive and this bird appears to fall within the range of RTHU (not in the overlap). i.e. tip of P10 is narrow. Funny that in the field we thought it was broad but the photos clearly show it is not. 3. Several people commented that bill length was too short for BCHU. I too have noted very long-billed BCHU's out west - but these are the ones I think we tend to focus on. I measured the culmen to head with ratio in photos of 10 individuals of each species (from lateral, sitting photos of birds in neutral positions). Black-chinned ratio varies from 1.0:1 to 1.7:1 (avg 1.2:1; most 1.0-1.3:1). Ruby-throated varies from 0.7:1 to 1.1:1 (avg 0.95:1). Our bird is 0.9 to 1.0:1 depending on which photo I measure. This puts it in the overlap zone but suggests RTHU. 4. Back colour (from Alvaro and Jon): Suggest it is too green above for Black-chinned (lacking grayish fringing). But this is quite subjective in my opinion. 5. Inner primaries (from Jon): 'On Black-chinned, the inner primaries are broad with weak tapering; these same feathers also lack notches along the inner webs. On Ruby-throated, the inner primaries are more drastically tapered in width are subtly notched along the inner web. This notching is I believe least apparent on immature females. The above bird shows tapered width to the tips of the inner primaries and very subtle notching (a light ‘kink’ before the tapering along the top edge).' Particularly characters 2 and 5 are very convincing for RTHU and 3 and 4 are suggestive of RTHU. Only 1 goes against this. So unless it is a hybrid;) it seems likely that we have a very unfortunate late Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Cross your fingers that she makes it through the night. We have 10cm of snow forecast. Thanks very much to Bruce Di Labio for sharing this observation with the community. It has been a lot of fun and a good distraction from work. Jeff -- Jeff Skevington, Research Scientist Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada 960 Carling Avenue, K.W. Neatby Building Ottawa, ON, K1A 0C6, Canada Phone: 613-720-2862 FAX: 613-759-1927 E-mail: [email protected] _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide Visit the OFO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists
