While most of my visitors are Annas and Black-chinned, I've been getting some of these lately. I have always assumed they were Allens, but just wanted to confirm with our resident experts. They don't have the distinct sound or coloration as Rufous which I see in early Spring and Autumn.




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Farmer Steve
Deluz, CA usda zone 10a

Steve,

It definitely appears to be a female Selasphorus (the genus to which both Rufous and Allen's, as well as Broad-tailed, belong), but differentiating between female Rufous and Allen's is almost impossible outside of the hand. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say it IS impossible, unless you get an extraordinarily clear view of the spread tail enough to see whether the tip of the R2 (the second tail feather on each side, counting from the innermost pair as R1) is notched. If it is notched, it's a Rufous, but if it's not, it's still not necessarily conclusively an Allen's, since the tip may have some damage.

Even in the hand, when we're banding, there's a graph Nancy will consult after measuring the width of the tail feathers. Once those measurements are plotted, she can (usually) identify an Allen's, which are much rarer here than Rufous, with considerable confidence.

That doesn't mean we can't make an educated guess. Rufous migrate fairly early, and are probably passing through your area of southern California by mid to late February and have probably completed moving through by the first part of April. They begin moving south in late June and early July, with returnee "winter" birds sometimes reaching south Louisiana by the end of July and in early August. I can only assume that for birds heading to the more traditional wintering grounds of central and southern Mexico, they are also arriving by late summer. A special note is that Rufous seem to migrate more heavily along the Pacific coast flyway in spring, but further east in the fall.

With that all in mind, any Selasphorus you see in your area in May or June would almost certainly be an Allen's. Any seen after about, say, mid-October (as a rough guess) until February are also more likely Allen's, as the bulk of the Rufous population would be further south by that point. Still, there are some Rufous wintering as far north as the southern California coast, so you can't rule Rufous out in the winter.

During migration - and this is probably the early part of southbound migration - it's harder to pin down which is which. Given the eastward route of migration, it's still "more likely" to be an Allen's, but it's just not something you can be certain of.

Kevin Morgan
Baton Rouge, LA

Thanks Kevin for the excellent explanation.

I didn't realize the two species were so closely related nor that this was even a female. I usually see what I think are Rufous around February (early spring in this area) which seems to match your description. They are more brilliant in their coloring but now I realize that the ones I see may just be male instead of female. They also have a much higher pitch to their flight and seem to upset my normally calm Anna's at the feeders with their aggressive behavior. The Selasphorus in yesterday's photos would sit and eat alongside the Anna's and black-chinned.

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Farmer Steve
Deluz, CA usda zone 10a

Steve, as Kevin noted, Rufous and Allen's are closely related. In fact, they were considered the same species until the 1930s. Hybridization has been suspected, but not proven. I band 5 or so each year therefore I do not have extensive experience with Allen's Hummingbird. I might make a fairly definite identification of a male, but a female such as this one does not display a lot of solid field characteristics to make an absolute diagnosis. In general, Allen's are smaller than Rufous [though there is some overlap in some measurements] so I can sometimes see 'clues' that lead me to suspect one species or the other. This bird appears to be somewhat small with a fairly short, skimpy tail. Those characteristics give me reason to suspect that she is an Allen's.

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Nancy L Newfield
Casa Colibrí
Metairie, Louisiana USA
USDA Zone 9

Steve,

Male Rufous and Allen's are certainly more brilliantly plumaged than the females, starting with the gorget. Males of both species have a fiery orange-red gorget, while females often have one to several colored gorget feathers as well (for us easterners, a female Rufous or Allen's gorget will usually look sort of like a young male Ruby-throat's).

The key difference between an adult male Rufous and an adult male Allen's is that an Allen's will essentially always have a green back, whereas most Rufous have a bright cinnamon/rufous brown back, often with no visible green at all. The rump and tail in both species is the rufous/rusty color, and the crown and back of the neck of both may have a mix of greenish and brownish feathers in it.

Both will also have rusty brown/rufous along the sides of the breast and belly.

A young male of either species will closely resemble the female, with one key difference that can be spotted from the back, or "dorsal", side of the bird. Both tails feature a mix of rusty brown and green feathers with a black band followed by a white tip.

A young male Allen's or Rufous will have the central tail feathers (the R1s) the same rusty color as the rump, as well as a good bit of the other tail feathers headed towards the outer parts of the tail (R2 through R5). A female, on the other hand, will have R1's that are green, with the rusty/brown confined to R2 through R5. Because of the way a hummingbird folds its tail in, the R1's are on top of the other feathers so a clear look at the tail can often determine the sex of a bird that looks like a female or young male.

Kevin Morgan
Baton Rouge, LA