Rufous Humming bird: question and answer

["Utah Birds" <utahbirds at excite dot com>]

Keith Evans asked the records committee an interesting question and got an interesting answer.  Here is the interchange:

Keith's question:   On June 28 at Cascade Springs, Wasatch County (west of Midway) I observed an adult female Rufous Hummingbird working on some cobwebs in dead branches of a gambel's oak.  She could have been gleaning insects or collecting cobwebs for a nest.  I can find no nesting information for Rufous Hummingbirds in Utah.  Are there any records of Rufous Hummingbirds nesting in Utah? Is June 28 too late for hummingbird nesting in Utah?  Thanks, Keith Evans

Rick Fridell's answer:
I'm sure others have access to more information than I do, but almost all Utah sources list Rufous Hummingbirds as transients in summer and early fall. Bee and Hutchings (1943) reported a Rufous Hummingbird nest found at Lehi, Utah County, on 20 June. Hayward et al. (1976) refer to this record, and state that the specimen was collected (by Hutchings) and subsequently lost, so verification "cannot be made". The closest regular breeding location I could find is south central Idaho. In regards to Utah nesters, Behle et al. (1985) concludes "there is no credible evidence of nesting inthe state".

Rufous Hummingbirds are early nesters and often leave their breeding areas as early as mid-June, so likely the female Keith Evans observed was a transient gleaning insects from spider webs, however....it probably is worth a trip back to the area to double check.

Best Regards,
Rick


Bee, R.G., and J. Hutchings. 1943. Breeding records of Utah birds. 
Great Basin Naturalist. 3:61- 90.

Behle, W.H., E.D. Sorensen, and C.M. White. 1985. Utah birds: A revised
checklist. Utah Museum of Natural History Occasional Publ. # 4.

Hayward, C.L., C. Cottam, A.M. Woodbury, and H.H. Frost. 1976. Birds of
Utah. Great Basin Naturalist Memoirs. 1:1-229.

Walters, R.E., and E.D Sorensen, eds. 1983. Utah bird distribution: 
Latilong study. Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Publication # 83-10. 97 
pp.

(The e-mail address for the Records Committee is:  RecCom@utahbirds.org)




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