I dropped by a feeder in Astoria where a Rufous Hummingbird had been reported a couple weeks back and found two.
Technically, there are two Selasphorus type hummingbirds that could appear here, Allen's or Rufous, but the hatch-year male coming to the feeder seems pretty obviously a Rufous. I'll play the game an report the hatch-year female as Selasphorus sp., but statistally it's probably also a Rufous, since the breeding range for Allen's is way south of here and there's no pattern of northward dispersal.
This is another species which is increasingly being reported wintering in places that would not seem hospitable to nectar/insect dependent neotropicals. Perhaps not so surprising here in the banana belt, but there's a bird currently wintering in Minnesota and a couple in New York.
Posted by mbalame at December 15, 2004 7:06 PM