Alex and I are currently on a 4 day birding trip in SE Arizona. We’ve seen a lot of great birds that I will post about later, but today at Mary Jo’s Ash Canyon Bed and Breakfast, we found a pretty interesting hummingbird. When I first saw it, my initial thought was Magnificent Hummingbird because it was so dark. I quickly realized it was the wrong size, and was actually the size of a Broad-billed Hummingbird. It fed with a male Broad-billed Hummingbird numerous times and gave a great size comparison, and also perched in nearby branches. Its lower mandible is slightly orange, like that of a Berylline Hummingbird, and its body is all dark. At first, I thought it was the Black-chinnedx? hybrid that had been reported there, but it didn’t look like the one that had been described. Other possibilities include Broad-billedxMagnificent (if that could even happen!) or BeryllinexMagnificent (which I have heard has happened, oddly enough). This bird looks very, very similar to this mystery hummingbird photographed by Bill Schmoker in Ramsey Canyon in August 2006 (first hummer on page).
The final consensus on this bird is Broad-billed X Black-chinned Hummingbird!
The final consensus on this bird is Broad-billed X Black-chinned Hummingbird!
Please look for this bird if you visit Ash Canyon over the next few days, and email me at annafasoli@gmail.com or comment here about what you think it is!!!
My first look at the bird....very Magnificent Hummingbird-looking but too small/not right...
Mystery hummer perched
mystery hummer left, adult male Broad-billed Hummingbird right
mystery hummer left, adult male Broad-billed Hummingbird right
mystery hummingbird perched on branch
notice orange lower mandible
back of mystery hummer
(glad for the link on ABA so more people can comment on this great bird! Look for a post soon about SE Arizona's hummers)
Hi Anna,
ReplyDeleteI'm far from an expert, but looking over your pics and Alex's, I think this is a Broad-billed x Black-chinned hybrid. I went into more details in a post on his site, but I keep going back to the shape of the tail- that notch and the "pointiness" of each group of retrices says "Archilochus" to me - and to the shape in particular of the R5's - they look way too narrow to be due to Broad-billed OR Magnificent parentage.
Sheri Williamson would probably have the best thoughts on this, though.
Im kind of partial to Black-chinned X Broad-billed personally. That gorget looks shaped nicely for a Black-chinned (or Broad-tailed for that matter), theres a lot of gray in the breast (although maybe this isnt a full adult?) and the shape of the white behind the eye all look good for BC. Weird bird!
ReplyDeleteThe consensus is Broad-billed x Black-chinned, for all of the above reasons, especially the sharp cut off of the gorget..I got a lot of email responses and Alex got a lot of responses on Nemesis Bird. I guess we can't know for sure, but it makes sense given what we can see from field marks. Regardless of what it is this is one of the best looking hummingbirds I've seen! Thanks for the comments on it! -Anna
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