Phil spotted the first hummingbird of the season at our Hummingbird Mint. It is different than the Broad-tailed hummingbird Phil photographed last year. Today’s was a bright yellow, with rufous (reddish-brown) underparts and a speckled throat.
My best guess is that it is a female Rufous hummingbird. The Rufous is very hard to tell from the Allen’s hummingbird, but I believe that the Allen’s range is much more limited and does not seem to come even close to Colorado.
Some interesting facts about the Rufous:
- A territorial hummingbird known to be aggressive with other, larger hummingbirds.
- It makes one of the longest migratory journeys of any bird in the world, as measured by body size: 3,900 miles from Alaska to Mexico, equivalent to 784,500 body lengths.
- It has a heart rate of 480 beats per minute when resting, up to 1,260 beats per minute when excited.
- It feeds on nectar a minimum of sixty times a day, at 13 licks per second, playing an important role in pollinating at least 129 plant species.
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!
so informative .. Hummiingbird looks great ..
check this out ..
http://hbstaysolutions.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/hummingbird-the-firefighter-2/