I sent the photos of the hummingbird to Mike Patterson from Oregon (<http://home.pacifier.com/~neawanna/humm/count.html>) who bands western hummingbirds. This is what he wrote:
It is a Rufous Hummingbird Rufous in tail and rufous on belly make this an unequivocal _Selasphorus_. The rectrices are too broad for Allen's. R3, R4 and R5 all look to be about the same width. R5 typically looks narrower in Allen's The tail also seem too narrow and too pointy tipped for Broad-tailed. And the gizz is just wrong for Broad-tailed anyway. The blurry, spread tail shot seems to show red in the R1's (center two feathers) which would make this a HY male. If you get a clearer picture and the R1's a green, then it's an adult female, but I think it's a young male. Laura Erickson Duluth, MN NOTE address change: [email protected] Producer, "For the Birds" radio program <http://www.lauraerickson.com/> There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of birds. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature--the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter. --Rachel Carson
