Change Of The Seasons

[EdoHart]

Two weeks ago the Anna humming birds would fly through the back door to complain to me that their feeder was empty. Today a large (for humming birds) bird, mostly black with a blue chest and face and white rims around its eyes and a white sliver extending from the eye, back down it's cheeks tried to chase me away from the feeder. He doesn't know me. I guess it's fall.

 

[highz]

What you are describing sounds something like a Magnificent hummingbird (used to be called Rivoli's hummer), but it was definitely not in its normal range if you saw it in Santa Maria. Maybe he was taking advantage of global climate change to expand his species range ...

 

[EdoHart]

What you are describing sounds something like a Magnificent hummingbird (used to be called Rivoli's hummer), but it was definitely not in its normal range if you saw it in Santa Maria. Maybe he was taking advantage of global climate change to expand his species range ...


Thanks for the information Highz. For the past 10 years, the "Blue ones" usually show up some time in early October and stay around for maybe a month or so. They usually appear just as the Anna's are leaving. When they disappear, there are no other humming birds until the Anna's return in the spring.

I admit that I haven't paid much attention to their sizes before today, but this "blue" guy was the largest humming bird I have seen - he was 3-4 inches long and easily chased away all the other hummers who wanted a sip from the feeder.