Today (Thursday Sept 13) at Black Swamp Bird Observatory, among the several Ruby-throated Hummingbirds visiting the feeders and plantings, we saw one probable Rufous Hummingbird. It was a female or immature bird. In that plumage it's almost impossible to separate Rufous and Allen's hummers - our views were not good enough to assess fraction-of-a-millimeter differences in the widths of certain tail feathers - but it was certainly a member of the genus Selasphorus, a Rufous/Allen's type, and past studies have shown that the vast majority of such birds reaching Ohio are Rufous Hummingbirds.

Mark Shieldcastle saw the bird once, I saw it once, and in another two and a half hours of watching I didn't see it again, so it's hardly a stakeout. But during the time I was there, I saw a lot of other birds coming in to the water feature behind the building: warblers including Blackpoll, Bay-breasted, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Black-and-white, Am. Redstart, and at least two Ovenbirds. Other migrants included Red-eyed Vireos and Swainson's Thrushes - at one point, three Swainson's were at the water feature at the same time.

The water feature and feeders are best viewed from inside the observatory, from the window on wildlife. During September, Black Swamp Bird Observatory is open from 11 to 5 on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. It's located immediately north of Route 2 at the entrance to Magee Marsh Wildlife Area in n.w. Ohio.


Kenn Kaufman
Editor, Kaufman Field Guides series
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