chaangnoy's Favourites

I believe this is the first of its kind ever reported. Both Ebird and inaturalist do not have a taxonomical category for this hybrid. I have lots more photos of this individual and hopefully someone will forward this to the right person to get a category established.

A wild ride to the identity of this little guy.

This bird generated a great deal excitement as the 5th BCHU sighted in the Greater Vancouver area and the 2nd ever photographed. Thousands of photographs surfaced, but keen eyed birders noticed something off about this bird as a pure BCHU, and hybrid parentage was hypothesized.

The Vancouver birding authority was alerted and two hummingbird experts, Sheri Williamson and David Sibley, were consulted. They determined this bird to be an ANHU x BCHU. Reasoning from each expert below.

Further information can be found here (where you can e-mail the blog for a copy of the expert's reasoning): http://bcbirdalert.blogspot.ca/p/vancouver-and-fraser-valley.html

iNaturalist does not have an entry for ANHU x BCHU and I don't know any way to add one, so I'll leave the ID at the family level.

(a) WILLIAMSON:

" Hi, Melissa,

Don Cecile also sent me some photos of this bird, which is definitely not a pure Black-chinned. The big-headed shape, dull, narrow chinstrap, and too-extensive violet are all indicative of hybrid origin.

Despite the violet gorget color and apparent lack of crown iridescence, two features particularly evident in Peter Candido's back view (which I hadn't seen previously) point strongly toward Anna's as the other parent: the long, deeply notched tail, inconsistent with Rufous, Calliope, Broad-tailed, or Costa's parentage; and shortish secondary coverts, an Anna's trait expressed intermediately in its hybrids. If perched side views can be obtained, I would expect them to show slight graduation of primary widths and faint notches on the inner vanes of P1-5, suggestive of Black-chinned, combined with a slight asymmetry to the outermost secondary coverts, an intermediate expression of another Anna's trait.

Hope this helps.

Good birding,

Sheri L. Williamson

Bisbee, Arizona"

(b) SIBLEY:

"Hi Melissa,

I agree there is too much purple on the throat for a Black-chinned Hummingbird, and also the gorget feathers are a little more elongated than normal at the bottom, and the tail shape is wrong. All of that makes me think hybrid, and I'm comfortable saying one of the parents is Black-chinned Hummingbird - the long curved bill, purple throat, and black chin (even though it is reduced) point to Black-chinned Hummingbird. The best fit parent for the other features is Anna's Hummingbird - tail shape, elongated gorget, extensive dusky green color overall with no rufous color.

There is a detailed description of this hybrid and diagrams of tail and wing shapes in this paper:

Banks and Johnson 1961 - Richard C. Banks, Ned K. Johnson,. 1961. A review of North American hybrid hummingbirds. Condor 63: 3-28. pdf https://sora.unm.edu/sites/def...

https://sora.unm.edu/sites/def... https://sora.unm.edu/sites/def...

Along with the old California specimen, there are at least two more recent records from Arizona, and probably more that I'm not aware of. This BC bird would be the farthest north and one of only a few records, but with the recent expansion of Anna's Hummingbird more hybridization would be expected.

Best, David

www.sibleyguides.com http://www.sibleyguides.com/"

Hybrid Clay-colored Sparrow x Field Sparrow (I don't see that option in iNat).

About ten days ago I visited Fletcher Creek Ecological Preserve in Flamborough, Hamilton with Laura and we came across an interesting sparrow. It was singing a classic Clay-colored Sparrow (CCSP) song from suitable looking breeding habitat. I played a snippet of tape to bring it in so we could see it (I know I know, I'm a bad birder). It flew in and circled us for a minute or so, with a Field Sparrow (FISP) keeping close company. I pointed the bird out as the CCSP to Laura, but then corrected myself and declared it a FISP because it had a weak facial pattern, bright bill, not much gray in the nape, and I had just seen a FISP near it. Eventually the bird sang, I thought "huh, guess this is a CCSP after all, with the light playing a factor, or something". I managed a few poor photos and carelessly ticked it as a CCSP in my eBird checklist, and we went on our day. Besides, we were mainly after insects this day and birding was sort of secondary.
After a recent discussion with Ross Wood, who mentioned seeing a potential hybrid FISP x CCSP at this location, I immediately recalled the interesting bird that Laura and I observed. I think it is a hybrid FISP x CCSP. Most of my photos were crap but this one turned out, though the angle isn't ideal. I will see if I can dig up any other photos if they are worth posting.
The bird superficially resembled a CCSP, with a weaker facial pattern and brighter pink bill. It had some chestnut/rufous tones in the crown and in the cheek, and it did not have much gray in the nape.
An interesting hybrid that I haven't seen before. There are a handful of eBird records in North America so this one isn't too unpredecented (if it is indeed this hybrid combo), but neat all the same!