The perils of field identification

[tedfl...@gmail.com]

Hey, all.

Yesterday morning, Wed., Sept. 16, I had nothing better to do than make a video of what I assumed was an immature (hatch-year) black-chinned hummingbird, Archilochus alexandri, at Greenlee Preserve, eastern Boulder County. Seconds after I pressed the record button on my camera, the bird flew off its perch heading in my direction. As the bird approached me, with the rising sun directly facing the bird, I caught a flash of brilliant ruby-red, dead center in the middle of the gorget. So this was a not a black-chinned hummingbird, but, rather, a rare ruby-throated hummingbird, A. colubris, right? Evidently, a male, known to start showing a few red flecks on the gorget by mid-Sept., especially right smack-dab in the middle of the gorget. Plus, the time of year (Sept.) is right for wayward young male ruby-throated hummingbirds.

Then I reviewed the video on my laptop.

So, the bird's throat was indeed red. Like, the actual "throat"--the red, fleshy part, the "mouth." The bird had flown out to capture a passing insect, and it opened its beak at precisely the right angle so as to create a nice red spot (in two-dimensional projection) exactly in the middle of the gorget. It's completely obvious from the video, but imagine if we'd seen this whilst birding out in far-eastern Colorado on a day with easterly winds in September. Archilochus . . . September . . . a bit of ruby-red in precisely the right spot . . .

Here's a short video I made for eBird/Macaulay:

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/263385971

And here's a short video I made for YouTube:

https://youtu.be/d6cZ04UWeL8

As I said, it's all pretty clear in retrospect. But it also affirms the danger in believing that "I know what I saw."

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County