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Posted by Vince on 21:49:53 01/12/05
Last Saturday, ace birder Alan Murray of Naples thought he saw a Black-chinned Hummingbird along Fritchey Road (Naples) but was unfamiliar with the species to the point where he wanted concurrence by other birders. Today, Wednesday, January 12th, I had to run some errands on Marco Island. Afterward, I decided to give Alan's hummingbird a shot.
First, the location where Alan found this bird is actually Laredo Street. Laredo Street is the street which begins after Fritchey Road makes a sharp turn to the north at its end. Second, the tree to which the hummingbird is coming is a Powderpuff (Calliandra haematocephala -- native to Brazil) and not a Bottlebrush Tree at 10300 Laredo Street in Naples.
With that out of the way, the hummingbird that I saw today at about 3:00PM was indeed a female Black-chinned Hummingbird. Here are the field marks that make me concur with Alan's original identification. First, I saw the bird perched for nearly five minutes and studied it from 15 feet away using my 7x45 Zeiss "Night Owl" binoculars. As Alan noted, the tail of this bird barely projected (if at all) beyond its wings and the wingtips themselves were curved and the last primary (P10?) was broad and blunt i.e. not pointed like in Ruby-throateds. The bird pumped its tail constantly in flight as well. The bill was l-o-n-g and decurved, longer than the Ruby-throateds I'm accustomed to seeing.
The overall coloration of this bird was a dull greenish color. The head crown was browish-gray, not green. I didn't notice if the forehead was flat(ter) as would be expected for this species vs. that of a Ruby-throated, sorry.
I did notice that the chin was a dirty grayish white, unlike what I'd expect for Ruby-throated Hummingbird.
That's it. . . . Oh yes, a couple of other things, the name of the property where the Powderpuff is located is Southern Tree Farm. The owner (whom I talked to) told me that hummingbirds have been coming to his property for two winters now and he said it was OK to watch them. I only saw one hummer -- the Black-chinned, however. The owner has placed a hummingbird feeder on this Powderpuff tree although when I was there, there was no sugar water in it.
Most importantly, you can see this tree right from Laredo Street as it is only 15 feet or so from the road and there is ample room to pull over on the berm.
Lastly, if you do not see the bird at this location, continue a few hundred yards down Laredo Street and there are more Powderpuffs along the road so the hummer might show up there as well.
This may be the first Black-chinned Hummingbird for Collier County ever. I do know that a local Naples birder had a Buff-bellied Hummingbird coming to his feeder earlier in late fall or early winter but only a select few got to see it. Maybe this is the year for unusual hummingbirds in Collier County?
Good luck if you go for this bird!
Vincent Lucas
Naples
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