With the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum having recently reopened to the public, I could not wait to revisit the beautiful South African garden to photograph the hummingbirds. I was pleasantly surprised to see quite so many and it was hard to know where to look or even point my camera, as they buzzed around like busy little bees!
With approximately 23 species of hummingbird in North America and 5 being the most common in California; you might think it relatively easy to distinguish one from the other. However, that is not the case when it comes to two in particular.
The Allen's (Selasphorus Sasin) and the Rufous (Selasphorus Rufus) are very much alike in size and coloration, therefore extremely difficult to tell apart, even by the experts. Even more confusing is the adult Rufous female (is almost indistinguishable from an immature Allen’s hummingbird.
It was only after viewing my images on the computer, that I began to wonder if the pretty female (above) was not an Allen's as I had originally thought, but in fact a Rufous? Here is why.
Females have bright golden green backs and their crowns are a bronzy greenish to olive color. The gorget (throat feathers) is heavily spangled with bronzy green speckles. They often have a iridescent red center patch on their throats that appears diamond shaped and a white collar extending into the chest area, blending with "rufous" which extends along the sides up into the back.
Here is the tell-tail sign! There is often a rufous tinge to the lower rump continuing into the tail feathers. There is a band of black on R3-R5 followed by a white tip. R2 is slightly notched with rufous green and black, R1 is green and black tipped. You can see in the below graphic what this all means.
Now take a look at the two images below of the tail feathers from my bird at the arboretum. Specifically look at the R2 feathers, which I have arrowed in red and what appears to be a slight notch.
So what do YOU think? Rufous or not?
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