Posted by John Boyd on December 19, 2002 at 17:15:18:
In Reply to: Rufous/Allens image posted by Jill on December 18, 2002 at 23:23:57:
It's a great photo!
Now let me take a shot at the ID (based mostly on Howell's "Hummingbirds of North America: The Photographic Guide"). Since I'm not an expert on these, I could easily be wrong. If it were a male, or an adult female, this excellent photo would give us the ID. Unfortunately, this bird is an immature female, and many of them cannot safely be ID'd. The classic method is to compare the widths of the outer 3 tail feathers (R3-R5). Is the middle of these feathers (R4) wide like the inner one (R3) or narrow like the outer one (R5). Here, it is intermediate. In other words, it's a Rufous/Allen's. Howell mentions that most immature females can't be safely ID'd, and this bird is an example.