It’s been quite finch-y at the birdcam lately, with lots of House Finches and Lesser Goldfinches, but fewer, it seems to me, of the other birds. Maybe that’s just sampling bias on my part, though; I haven’t been able to spend as much time as I’d like looking through the camera lately.
Anyway, here are my favorite shots from yesterday.
Several of us got shots of this female House Finch. I was interested by the little tufts on top of her head, which led me to believe she’s a recent fledgling. Here’s a shot taken by kryptonkay at 11:41:
I also was very interested by this Mourning Dove. Again, I think we’re looking at a recent fledgling, one that hasn’t had time to grow in that long, beautiful tail that mature Mourning Doves have, and whose feathers have a curious mottled, camouflage appearance. Here are a couple of shots taken by buzzie at 5:11 p.m. and 5:27 p.m.:
Finally, here’s a very interesting pair of shots taken by frodo at 6:59 p.m. The other users on the site classified them as Allen’s Hummingbird, which I can see if I squint a little, though I bet it was much more clear if you saw the video in real-time than it is from these shots:
If you’re having a hard time seeing where the hummingbird is in that shot, here’s a shot taken after he left:
I think it’s neat that you get an actual shot at the iridescent throat, or gorget, of this male hummer; so far I’d never seen a good shot of that with the birdcam. Since the camera mainly faces southeast, and since the sun in the northern hemisphere tends to track across the southern sky, it’s hard for us to get a good view with the sun at our backs, which is pretty much what you need to get the full effect of a male hummingbird’s gorget. But in this case it was late in the day, with the sun low in the west, and the hummingbird apparently was far enough to the left in the camera’s field of view to give us a favorable angle. The result: A very nice pair of shots.
If that whets your appetite for some better views, check out these amazing shots by Doug Morgan: Hummingbird gorget displays. The last two, of a Rufous Hummingbird, are especially interesting to compare to these shots of frodo’s, but some of the earlier ones of the Calliope Hummingbird will really knock your socks off.
Frodo’s shots are amazing and I appreciate your adding in the link to Doug Martin’s website. What patience that must have taken to get images of that quality….they are absolutely beautiful!
Thanks, elanus!