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Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Selasphorus hummingbird on Long Island

This past Saturday Sean, Joe and myself drove out to Norm Klein's house in Northport. Norm has had a selasphorus hummingbird hanging around his backyard for several days. I'm using only the bird's genus name as separating the very similar Allen's Hummingbird and Rufous Hummingbird are extremely difficult in the field. Sean was hoping to get some photographs of the bird so that a positive identification could be made.

We arrived at approximately 3pm and, over the next two hours, Sean shot dozens of photos of a very cooperative hummer. Below are some of the highlights.

Rufous Hummingbird? (click to enlarge)










(Photo credit - Sean Sime)

7 comments:

Michael said...

Hi Robb:

Please pass along my kudos to Sean on the outstanding photos taken of the hummingbird in Northport, LI. Incidentally, this is Norm's son and he directed me to your blog.

Once again, outstanding photos.

Feel free to email me: warpdrve AT gmail DOT com.

Regards - Michael

Pamela said...

The rufous will come back to my house sometime in late April early May
Karmyn
has several at her place in central Oregon still ... in the snow.

LauraHinNJ said...

Beautiful shots!

I'm guessing that's Pineapple Sage? Would you know?

Rob Jett said...

It is Pineapple Sage. Also, I found an interesting article about why western hummers may be showing up in the east with increasing frequency. Pineapple Sage (Salvia elegans) may be playing a role. Check this link and scroll to the bottom of the page:

http://www.hiltonpond.org/ResearchHummerVagrantMain.html

Bird Advocate said...

Those are awesome pictures, thank you!

Danielle said...

Ugh! How did I miss this? It's only a couple minutes from my house! Boy, am I out of the loop... sigh.

Rob Jett said...

Dani,

It's not too late. As of yesterday the hummer, aka Ilsa, is still present at Norm Klein's house. Let me know if you need his address. He likes visitors.

Rob