The Birders Report

Jedi Hummers photo by Lisa Williams

I have been waiting a long time to post this photo by Lisa. Any of you who are familiar with hummingbirds know how tough it must have been to capture this photograph! This is a photo of a Rufous Hummingbird defending his feeder from a Black-chinned Hummingbird looking for an easy meal. You can see all of Lisa’s photos at Arizona Birder.

Well, spring has arrived in northern California. We saw our first Rufous Hummingbird at the feeder yesterday. The male Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) will aggressively defend feeding locations in his territory as you can see from the above photo.

The Rufous Hummingbird also has the longest migration route of all the hummers traveling well over 3000 miles from Mexico and possibly Panama north to Alaska. As a matter of fact the Rufous Hummingbird breeds farther north than any other species of hummingbird in the world.

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I just came across an interesting post from Mike Bergin over at 10,000 Birds he writes:

“Have you ever started your day knowing that the word “mundane” just wasn’t going to apply? That’s how I felt this morning when I woke up in GUATEMALA! I’m here to participate in the fourth Birding Encounter courtesy of the Guatemala Tourism Commission. This noble enterprise has been conceived to promote bird watching and ecotourism in Guatemala, a Central American jewel oft overlooked by travelers. Frankly, I feel that selling Guatemala to birders should be about as easy as selling water to people whose hair is on fire. We’re talking about a country smaller than Tennessee harboring more than 550 bird species. The numbers do not lie: Guatemala is a birding paradise”.

The Illusive Quetzal Bird photo by Steve Winter

I am looking forward to more updates on Mike’s trip to Guatemala. It is a beautiful country with friendly native people. A real joy to visit.

Here are some pictures of the hand woven wall hanging Brigitte and I brought back from our trip to Guatemala many years ago. They depict the Guatemalan national bird, the Quetzal that is now endangered.

Close Up

Violet-green Swallow photos by Bob Sheldon

To celebrate my wife’s birthday we had a half a dozen Violet-green Swallows fly over our house on March 1st! These incredibly beautiful, acrobatic birds are a pleasure to watch. Just watching their aerobatics will relieve stress, kinda like watching fish in an aquarium only WAY better.

These streamlined birds have short, flat bills and wide mouthes.  They have long pointed wings and small weak feet.  They can be seen putting on acrobatic displays over open country and bodies of water spending most of their time in flight catching insects, their principal diet.  Swallows are very gregarious birds, migrating in large flocks by day you may see them perched on wires along the roadside.

The main features that distinguish the Violet-green Swallow from the Tree Swallow are the white patches that almost meet over the base of the tail and the white on their face partially encircles the eye.  The male is velvety green with violet above and is clear white below.  The female is a little duller in color, grayish on the sides of the head and the forehead.

One of the cool things about Violet-green Swallows is that they will nest in man made nest boxes or birdhouses.

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