Rufous Hummingbird - Arapahoe

[Jared Del Rosso]

On Monday (7/11), I had my earliest encounter with a Rufous Hummingbird in my six years living in Centennial in Arapahoe County. It was an adult male. I almost described him as a "striking" adult male, but that adjective is redundant for an adult male hummingbird and especially one of this species.

The bird was trilling about the yard, making a different sound than the Broad-tails. This got my attention, and I eventually found the bird seeming to hunt insects amid Siberian Elms and chokecherries. He briefly visited a penstemon (Penstemon rostriflorus) in my backyard. But he seemed more interested in the trees and shrubs. 

I tried for a photo, but he wouldn't tolerate me near him. Easier to move on to another yard, where he could hunt without someone following him around in the heat with a camera, I suppose.

Incidentally, I hadn't recorded a Rufous at my house since 2018. But I also haven't maintained hummingbird feeders since about then, either. (I'm not right now, too.) Perhaps a coincidence. Or perhaps I just haven't been outside at the right time. 

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO