Aberrant Hummingbird Question + Other Birds of Note - Arapahoe

[Jared Del Rosso]

I'm going to work backward through my evening of birding around my neighborhood in Centennial tonight.

Fairly deep into dusk, around 7:40 PM, I stepped outside and startled a hummingbird away from the agastaches (rupestris and cana) growing at my front steps. The bird stalled at some wilty, orange container plants, and I noticed what appeared to be a "crest" on the hummer. I went back in, nabbed my binoculars, and had really poor views of what appeared to be a molting or sickly hummer. It appeared to be missing feathers on its heads, giving it that crest appearance. And it appeared to be missing a number of tail feathers. There was a lot of white appearing in the tail, more than I'm used to seeing. But I think I was actually seeing the rump of the bird, not the tail, and I suspect the latter was mostly missing.

I couldn't get pictures of the bird, which retreated as I went back in to get my camera. 

Does anyone have experience seeing a hummingbird that looks like this (in general terms) at this time of year? My suspicion is that it is an ill bird, as molting would be a bad strategy (I think?) in September for one of our resident or migratory hummingbirds. Certainly, I've not seen a hummingbird look like this at this time of year. 

If it's here tomorrow, I'll try to get photos. My front is planted to attract hummingbirds -- lots of agastaches, penstemons, and figwort -- so hopefully that will help this bird, whatever it's situation, along.

Earlier, I walked to Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens, motivated by David Suddjian's report from Littleton Cemetery. Glad I went. I spent a half hour or so at the entrance, with sparrows, Bushtits, a Wilson's Warbler, a pewee, and one unidentified ground skulker (towhee probably, but who knows). 

Though I arrived at the cemetery motivated by David Suddjian, I tried to conjure Dave Leatherman while watching the Bushtit flock, attempting to understand their behavior by the available food. Occasionally, I'd see one acrobatically reach from a shrub down to the wilty stalks of prickly lettuce (or at least I think that's what they were), where it would explore the plants seedheads and stems. I decided to inspect the plants, not expecting to find anything. But there appeared to be aphids (or at least I think that's what they were) a-plenty on the plants. I couldn't get photos of the small, green insects with wings, and, unfortunately, my photos of the tiny white insects the flying ones left behind are a blurry mess. (Bad job at documentation today, huh?)

On the weedy hill in the back of the cemetery, two Loggerhead Shrikes (the bird David reported from Littleton Cemetery, which started this voyage). This is the first time I've seen multiple Loggerhead's in a local hotspot in the Littleton - Centennial - Greenwood Village area that I bird.

On my way out, my own motivation: Common Nighthawks, flying with purpose, over the cemetery. I counted six during my time there, including the last bird of the evening...until the hummer that started this post.

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO

[Amy C]

My guess about the hummingbird would be that a predator grabbed,  then lost it. In any case, missing that many feathers doesn't bode well for migration.

Amy

Amy  Cervene

Arvada, Jefferson

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[Jared Del Rosso]

The hummingbird visited my yard again this morning. My photos confirmed what I saw a few evenings ago, in the dusk light -- a hummingbird with few tail feathers and a crest or puff of feathers on its crown, though I don't think it looks like it is actively molting feathers from its head. (Really, not sure.) I don't think anything about this bird suggests it's obviously not a Broad-tailed, but if you have another opinion or if you have any thoughts on the bird's condition, I'd love to hear it. - Jared Del Rosso, Centennial

[Chris Petrizzo]

Today I had this interesting Broad-tailed visiting my feeder. It appears that the throat feathers are mostly gone, giving it a sort of "ruffed" appearance.

-Chris Petrizzo, Broomfield

[Dave Hyde]

Perhaps the bird poked its head in somewhere deep and got its head feathers all sticky? Otherwise it looks like a BT hummer to me. Or maybe its some rare bird blown up from Central America by Hurricane Ida!? – Dave Hyde/Longmont

 

Sent from Mail for Windows

 

 

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[Jared Del Rosso]

No photo from today's sighting, but this hummingbird is still around. It's now without a single tail feather, giving it a decidedly not-Broad-tailed look, even though the rest of it seems like a Broad-tailed. No noticeable changes yet to the head feathers. It's fattening up, though, for sure, and it's holding its own in all the territorial activity going on with other hummers. I think there's another Broad-tailed around and perhaps also a Black-chinned.

- Jared