Well, the only regular we've had April & May has been our little male that was first to show up on April 3rd. But yesterday things started picking up. About 3-4 days ago we started seeing a female hitting the window feeder a few times a day. Then yesterday, as activity started picking up we got some shots. Like many of you have been reporting, it's been a real -zoom in -take a drink -and zoom out spring. Very hard for getting pictures.

Here's a video from yesterday. We're trying to figure out if it was a molting juvie or a disheveled mama....can anybody tell?



And here's some of the pics...












Diana
Upstate SC
Zone 7b

Diana,

On the video I can see what looks to be some stippling lines coming down the throat of that RTH. That would indicate a young male I believe. Oh boy....let teh fun begin!!

Pam NJ 6B

Not sure about that Pam. I'm almost positive this was a female on 4/20 and if you blow up the pics you can see stippling on her throat.






Diana
Upstate SC
Zone 7b

Opps, I guess I got my info or my memory crossed. I thought stippling lines coming down the throat would indicate a young male. I'm sure Nancy or someone with more experience will be around.

Pam NJ 6B

Bump


Pam NJ 6B

Hey Diana! Congrat's on Picture of the day!! Really clear zoom on that one, obviously NOT Novabird?!?!!?!


Pam NJ 6B

Diana, Pam,

It looks to me like the bird in your video (and in the first two pictures) is an adult female.

I do see some very, very faint streaks that look sort of like "stippling" on the throat, but the bird's plumage overall doesn't look like an immature bird. (Remember that an immature bird would not be molting - that is, losing feathers to natural replacement - at this point, since his or her first body feathers will probably last through the fall, even into winter. Adult birds, however, do a complete body molt when breeding is over.)

When we talk about stippling on the throat, this is more like what we mean:



You can also see the first couple of colored gorget feathers coming in - another sign that this is a young male Ruby-throat.

This is a particularly heavy stippling example, of course, and it can be a lot lighter than this - in fact, some males won't show any at all. But you won't see a female Ruby-throat with this kind of throat pattern unless she's in a very abnormal plumage.

Kevin Morgan
Baton Rouge, LA

It looks to me like she is missing some feathers in the gorget area, also on her breast.