Today Chris and I birded Burleigh Murray State Park from the parking lot to a ways beyond the barn. Just a heads up…..
We saw (9) different adult male selasphorus hummingbirds which appeared to be on territory that were making vocalizations and sounds, mainly the hard ticking chip, as well as wing buzz. I used Merlin to record these sounds and made 7 recordings. And here are the results:
Merlin ID’d Rufous Hummingbird in 4 of the recordings.
Merlin ID’d Allen’s Hummingbird in 2 of the recordings.
Merlin vacillated between Rufous and Allen’s ID in 1 recording, while we watched and heard one individual bird buzz away defending it’s territory and return to it’s perch several times.
We spent time with these birds making sure we could get a view of the full backs of the birds, which were green.
I noted the 9 adult male selasphorus hummingbirds as Allen’s Hummingbirds as we know they breed at this location and by their behavior. Rufous Hummingbirds are migrants. I mention this because a very small percent of Rufous Hummingbirds can have a green back. But per Merlin, is it possible that 4 potentially 5, out of 9 adult male selasphorus hummingbirds seen today could have been green-backed Rufous Hummingbirds?
Last year an adult Allen’s male that stayed in our yard for a month or longer was consistently ID’d as both Allen’s and Rufous within multiple single recordings I made using Merlin. I was hoping Merlin would have improved. But today showed that there are still issues when it comes to ID’ing Rufous/ Allen’s Hummingbirds.
This is the time of year, folks start reporting Rufous Hummingbirds. If you are using Merlin to help with the ID, please be cautious. In the case of adult male selasphorus hummingbirds, if you do not have a lot of field experience differentiating between the sounds, vocalizations, subtle field marks, and display behaviors of these 2 species, you need to try your best to get a full-on back view to make sure the back is solid orange for Rufous Hummingbird. Not just a side view, as the amount of orange on the sides of the rump on an Allen’s can be mis-interpreted as a solid orange back. And not just a quick view of a bird zooming around quickly!
Always, when using Merlin – try to get a good visual on the bird you are recording.
I know a lot of newer birders who rely on Merlin are not on Pen-bird, please share with anyone who may benefit from this post.
