Photo Study Of A Rufous Hummingbird At Jacobsburg State Park, Northampton County, PA, November 20th, 2011

    An adult male Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) has been frequenting a feeder at the office of the Jacobsburg State Park for the past
    week or so. An unknown "hummingbird" was originally spotted by Pat Houck the Friday before last weekend. Pat emailed Arlene Koch1 who
    then contacted Rick Wiltraut, the Naturalist at the Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center. Rick came in on Saturday morning and refilled
    the feeder but did not see a hummer. When Rick came to work on Monday morning, a hummingbird was on the feeder which he quickly identified
    as an adult male Rufous. After taking some photos, Rick noticed a band on its leg and immediately got in touch with Scott Weidensaul2 who
    dropped everything to come and try to capture it. Scott was then able to trap this beautiful western hummingbird on November 14th. After Scott
    read the number on the band, he posted it to the National Database and was eventually contacted by Nancy Newfield who had originally banded
    the bird as an immature in River Ridge, Louisiana on January 9, 2011. This means that this particular little Rufous Hummingbird was born in the
    summer of 2010 somewhere west of the Rocky Mountains. It then migrated to the Gulf, where it was captured and banded. The hummer then
    migrated back to the Pacific Northwest breeding grounds. Now it has flown east to visit us here in Pennsylvania before completing its second
    migration returning back to the Gulf... just amazing!

Here are a few photos taken yesterday of the adult male Rufous Hummingbird at Jacobsburg State Park : 

   

 

 
  

    And for comparative purposes here are some photos of other western vagrant hummingbirds seen in Pennsylvania over the past couple of years:


 1st Year Female Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus)
Banded December 8th, 2007 By Nick Pulcinella
In Merion, Montgomery County, PA

   
 
  1st Year Female Allen's Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin)
Leola, Lancaster County, PA, December 22-28, 2009

 
  
Adult Male Allen's Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin)
Letitz, PA, Lancaster County, November 9th, 2010

     

 
 1st Year Female Selasphorus Hummingbird
 Lehigh County, PA, November 10-14, 2010

                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                         1st Year Female Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna)
                                                                            Shartlesville, Berks County, PA, November 24th, 2010

 

 1st Year Female Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus)
Yardley, Bucks County, PA, December 15-16, 2010   

 

   In particular, I would like to thank Rick Wiltraut for identifying the Jacobsburg adult male
   Rufous and getting the word out about how to find it. Also, thanks go to Arlene Koch, Scott    Weidensaul and Dave DeReamus for their postings and all the information they have provided.

   

            Howard B. Eskin 2011   Please click here to email your comments to hbeskin@voicenet.com        Please click here to go back to Bird Webpage Index 

1. From an article written by Arlene Koch in The Express-Times on November 20th about western hummingbirds in our area:

"Next, about a week later, Pat Houck of Nazareth saw a hummingbird on the same Jacobsburg feeder and naturalist Rick Wiltraut refound it a few days later. This one was an adult male rufous that created quite a stir. Not only wasn't it necessary to catch and band it to determine what it was, it was already wearing a band. Finding one like that, even on a national level, is extremely rare. Scott Weidensaul, nationally known author, raced into to try to catch it, which he did in a short period of time. The information on its band that Scott submitted to the national database showed that it had been banded as a young bird by Nancy Newfield in January of this year 1,230 miles away in Louisiana. Since then, it almost certainly went back northwest to breed and is now going back south for the winter. Ironically, Nancy's a friend who called me a few days before this happened."

        

2. On November 14th, Scott Weidensaul of Schuykill Haven, PA posted the following on PA Birds:  

"I just learned that the rufous hummer reported by Rick Wiltraut, and which I caught today at Jacobsburg State Park in Northampton County, was banded Jan. 9, 2011 in River Ridge, Louisiana by famed hummingbird bander Nancy Newfield. Although he's now in full adult plumage, he was an immature male at the time, so we know he was born in the summer of 2010, and is on his second migration. Nancy is the one who really started banding and studying these western vagrant hummingbirds back in the 1970s, and she's been a friend and colleague since I got into hummer-banding in 2001. To catch one of Nan's birds up here is a particular treat. My guess is this male spent the summer on his breeding grounds in the Pacific Northwest, northern Rockies or Alaska, and is on his way back to the Gulf region, taking this circuitous eastern route that more and more of them appear to be using. Nancy said she caught him last winter in one of her best yards (some of these properties get nine or 10 western hummers of several species), and I hope he checks in with her when he arrives back in Lousee-anna."