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RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD |
All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center Cathey Bickley of Irmo SC considers herself lucky; she and husband Jake have had a wintering hummingbird--perhaps the same bird--in two of the last three years. Their 2001 hummer arrived in mid-November and has been a daily visitor to a feeder and various flowering plants in their suburban backyard near Columbia (Richland County).
It didn't take long to determine that the Bickley's bird was an adult female Rufus Hummingbird, Selasphorus rufus. This hummer was in excellent shape, weighing in at 3.6g and with intensely buffy flanks (bottom photo), several bronzy-orange gorget feathers (right), a hint of rufous on the lower back (below left), and spotted undertail coverts (below right). It was the most brightly plumaged female Rufous Hummingbird ever banded by Center staff--perhaps indicating the bird was more than two years old, and lending support to the suggestion that it might be the same bird that visited the Bickleys in the winter of 1999-2000.
![]() Please report your sightings of all Vagrant & Winter Hummingbirds east of the Mississippi For much more information about hummingbirds, visit Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project ![]() |
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