Observers: Chris Howard
Email: choward@telis.org
Remote Name: 65.244.205.238
Date: 04/03/2006
Time: 12:47 PM -0400
As far as I know, there hasn't been a confirmed sighting of an Allen's Hummingbird in Inyo County. We're right on track for Rufous's to migrate north through Inyo, although none acturally breed here. (We've had males and females the past week.) As far as identification, females of Rufous and Allens are nearly identical, so the safest call is just them Selasphorous. That said, an Allen's is bound to be found in Inyo someday, and it will probably be a male. However, even males are super-tough to separate. By and large Rufous's have rufous backs and Allen's have green backs but there are exceptions. The 'clincher' is the width of the outer tail feathers, narrower in Allen's.... perhaps that's why one has never been idenfified here.