Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 10:27:31 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: jeff clark Subject: FW: [va-bird] Original Rufous Hummingbird at the SI... MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sad news. -------------------------------------------------- Jeff Clark Fairfax, VA jeff at nothoo.com -----Original Message----- From: va-bird-bounce@freelists.org [mailto:va-bird-bounce@freelists.org] On Behalf Of Matt Orsie Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 10:07 AM To: va-bird@freelists.org Subject: [va-bird] Original Rufous Hummingbird at the SI... Hi All, Since Scott Weidensaul has notified the SI and posted this note on the PA-Bird Listserv I'd thought some of you would be interested. ################################################## I have to apologize for the teaser the other day regarding this bird, but the reason for the delay will become clear in a moment. Just to recap: Last week, a dead rufous hummingbird was found by an employee of Williams Valley High School near Tower City, below a window that sadly kills a lot of birds. The hummer was banded, and a science teacher there contacted me about it. I quickly learned that the bird had been banded by my friend Mary Gustafson, the acting chief of the federal Bird Banding Lab. It was, in fact, the much-hyped rufous hummingbird that Mary had banded Dec. 4, 2003 in the Ripley Garden of the Smithsonian Institution, along with a black-chinned hummingbird in the same place. "But that can't be," Mary told me when I called her Friday. "That bird's still there." Although the black-chinned was long gone, there was still a rufous hummer at the Smithsonian, which naturally everyone assumed to be the one that Mary had banded. In fact, it wasn't until I read off the band number again, and confirmed that the dead hummer I'd been given was the correct age and sex -- and once I'd seen photographs of the live bird at banding, which had the same number and placement of gorget feathers as the dead hummer -- that Mary accepted that this was indeed the same bird. The reason for the delay in my posting the details was that Mary wanted to break the news of the death to her contacts at the Smithsonian over the phone, rather than have them find out via email lists, and she wasn't able to reach them until Tuesday morning. Apparently there was more than one rufous hummer coming to the flowers and feeders at the Smithsonian, and Mary did in fact have one unconfirmed report of multiple rufous there last month, which she had discounted. She suspects one of the other rufous she'd banded in the D.C. area may have moved in, covering the disappearance of the original. So, we know where this bird came from, at least recently -- but I can't begin to explain why it then headed north more than 125 miles in the middle of the winter. The only explanation might be that it was an immature bird, and youngsters often do odd things. It's just a shame that it wound up suffering an all-too-common fate, flying into a plate glass window. (I'm working with Mary to make arrangements to place the specimen with a museum, either an institution here in the state, or at the Smithsonian, which seems appropriate.) Scott Weidensaul Schuylkill Haven, Pa. ########################################################## Good Birding, Matt Orsie Summit Point, WV Jefferson County mailto:vireo@adelphia.net Digiscope Shots of WV Birds and others http://ogeh.oracleicenter.com:8078/wvdigi.htm You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email to va-bird@freelists.org. To unsubscribe, send email to va-bird-request@freelists.org with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================