Date: 9/23/25 5:57 pm From: SCOTT WEIDENSAUL <000001343b2dd726-dmarc-request...> Subject: Re: Question about juvie Ruby-throated Hummers
Not so much a brownish cast as light buffy edging to the feathers of especially the crown, nape and upper back that looks like delicate scalloping. Very elegant, and easy to see in good light and at moderately close range or with bins.
Scott Weidensaul
Milton, NH (formerly Schuylkill Co.)
> On Sep 23, 2025, at 6:16 PM, Lee Simpson <0000013640a8a13a-dmarc-request...> wrote:
>
> While watching hummingbird banding in Portal and Paradise, Arizona, I learned that the immature Black-chinned hummers tend to have a brownish cast to the head feathers, and it is fairly easy to see with binoculars, even with my catarcts. I am curious whether immature Ruby-throats have any such coloration
> Thanks, Lee Simpson, N Berks Co
> On Tuesday, September 23, 2025 at 10:53:28 AM EDT, DAVID KOCH <0000012d74227426-dmarc-request...> wrote:
>
> As is normal for this time in September, ruby-throated hummingbirds continue to move into and out of the yard, visiting both flowers and feeders. They're all either young of either sex or females, although if you don't know what to look for it's difficult sexing them. A lot of the ones I'm seeing are young males with marks on their throats. This will continue to sometime in early October,,usually around the 10th or so. And as also is the norm, adult males have been gone since the first week of September. They instinctively migrate early to get the best wintering territories, just like they do when they come north in the spring before the females. Also, with them gone it leaves food and habitat for the juveniles and females as they migrate. In addition tpo expected common species recentlu seen here include: kestrels and sharpies, bald eagles, a few broadwings, a pileated woodpecker, several northern flickers, three phoebes, an eastern wood-pewee, red-eyed and Philadelphia vireos, tree swallows, blue/gray gnatcatcher, bluebirds, Swainson's thrush, mockingbird, brown thrasher, parula, Connecticut, yellow, Tennessee,,prairie, and mourning warblers, scarlet tanagers, Lincolns' and swamp sparrows, cedar waxwings, and rose-breasted grosbeaks.
> Arlene Koch Easton, PA Northampton County <davilene...>
>
