There's a real interesting story behind this little guy. When Rick realized that the bird was already banded, he contacted Scott Weidensaul, who came and captured it on the 14th. The number on the band revealed that it had been banded as an immature male on January 9, 2011 in River Ridge, Louisiana by famed hummingbird bander Nancy Newfield. So, he is now on his second migration and will hopefully end up back in Louisiana for the winter.
In addition to its banded history, it's interesting that this bird's wings made a whistling noise in flight like that of a Broad-tailed. You often heard it coming before it got to the feeder. Since most of the birds that show up in PA are immature birds, it was a special treat to get to see this nice adult male, only the second one I've ever seen in PA.
This has been an exceptional season for Rufous Hummingbirds. A few weeks before, the same park office feeder fed a 'Selasphorus' hummingbird that was most likely a Rufous. And just a few miles away, another Rufous Hummingbird, this one an adult female, was visiting a feeder near Delabole. In addition to these three Northampton County visitors, yet another Rufous was discovered at a feeder in Allentown near Lake Muhlenberg.
No comments:
Post a Comment