UNUSUAL HUMMINGBIRD FOR IDAHO

ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD -- Calypte anna

15 November through 8 December 2004, Eagle, Ada County

While not an unheard of hummingbird in Idaho, Anna's certainly is deserving of attention in this state. On the official Birds of Idaho Field Checklist, Anna's Hummingbird is listed as rare and local statewide during migration. There are typically at most two or three reports per year (and I personally suspect a much larger number that goes unreported). The origin of these birds is uncertain, but it is thought that fall sightings may be wanderers from breeding sites in the Pacific Northwest, perhaps Seattle, WA or Vancouver, BC.

On Friday, 3 December Greg Wardwell fielded a call from Shirley Nations of Eagle stating that she still had a hummingbird at her feeder. In fact, back in mid November she had three bird simultaneously in her yard. Wardwell was able to photograph this bird on the morning of 6 December, and we both were able to band it the following morning. The bird was a very cooperative immature male Anna's Hummingbird. Bill corrugations covered perhaps the basal 10% of the bill, but since this species nests very early in the year, corrugations are not expected to be visible by this point. Indeed, for females it is difficult if not impossible to confidently age this species at this time of year. We were lucky since the bird had adult male retrices and extensive gorget feathers on the crown, nape, throat, and sides of the face. It lacked the complete adult gorget, though, so we can confidently age the bird as a Hatch Year male. No molt was visible on the body or the flight feathers, although a patch of feathers were missing on the throat, perhaps the result of a recent collision.

This is the third Anna's I've banded in Idaho this year, the 7th confirmed Anna's in Idaho this year, and at least the 25th record for the state (see www.IdahoBirds.net bird distribution records). Thank you very much, Shirley, for sharing your hummingbird with us!

PHOTOS (all © 2004 Greg W. Wardwell)

Figure 1. This bird seemed to enjoy resting on the feeder. We chose to let the bird get one feeding in unincumbered by traps before we got set up. The bird sat on the feeder for what seemed like forever before flying away momentarily! We then set up the trap and caught him without complication within a couple minutes.	Figure 2. The throat was widely speckled with rose gorget feathers, including several on the sides of the face under the eye.
Figure 3. The nape and crown also had several rose gorget feathers visible, best when in good light.	Figure 4. The retrices are typical adult male Anna's -- narrow and blunt outer retrices, and uniform inner ones. Note the darkness around the rachis of the outer retrices..
	MEASUREMENTS in hand: Exposed culmen: 18.67 mm. Wing cord: 49.77 mm. Tail length: 32 mm. Mass: 4.1 grams. Fat score: 0 on scale of 0-4.
Figure 5. The wing was classic "Calypte" with the inner primaries being roughly the same width as the outer ones. The tail lengh compared to wing length also supports Anna's -- see also the long tail in Figure 1.