Little Miss Rufous

Day 279: I'm of the opinion that you cannot have too many hummingbirds, although the little stinkers have been putting a sizeable dent in my grocery budget since mid-April. Sugar is something I only use for baking, but somehow a five-pound bag doesn't seem to last long enough to make three batches of cookies. That said, it's a treat to watch them at the feeders and to listen to their verbal battles with one another, throwing insults left and right, and even occasionally cussing out a hapless Goldfinch or Pine Siskin who made the mistake of perching on the "shepherd's crook" stake. I've come close to taking a Hummer in the eye or the back of my head when I've been slow to replace an empty bottle, and have had them hover within inches of my hand as they wait in line.

Selasphorus rufus, the Rufous Hummingbird, is a tiny little thing. The males exhibit a beautiful rust-colored back and brilliant metallic red throat, the back coloration readily separating them from male Allen's which are green with a rufous tail. The females are green-backed with rusty flanks, deeper in shade than that of the smaller female Calliope Hummingbird. Female Anna's have grey flanks. My population consists entirely of Rufous.