[EBB Sightings] White hummer?

Greetings EBB'ers' & other Hummer watchers.  

Thanks for the fine pictures**, Mary.  It is a scruffy looking  bird = 
possible immature.  To me this bird appears to be an Anna's  Hummingbird, although I 
don't have much idea of it's size, the report of  any "singing" would most 
likely be male Anna's  Hummingbird. Supposedly AnHu is our only "singing" 
hummingbird,  although, Costa's Hummingbird, a desert species, (which does regularly 
 breed just south of Alameda County (STA Co.), does also have  a song. It is 
a long, thin, drawn out, descending whistle. The  singing, however does imply 
a male, Anna's Hummingbird   The  breast/belly of this largely albino bird 
appears to have some coloring, which  would be more typical of the grayish 
breast/belly of Anna's Hummingbirds  compared to the much lighter underparts of any 
other hummers in our area.  
 
Our Anna's can have nests with eggs in January. For  AnHu, Incubation to 
hatching is 19 days max; Hatching to  fledging is  23 days max. This total = 42 
days or  places this bird possibly as a fresh egg at 12 February (or  before). 
As a genetic, partial albino, this bird may hang around for a few  more years - 
be on the lookout, as well as the listen!
 
 
Happy Birding,

Phil Gordon
Hayward, ALA Co.
_PAGPEG at aol.com_ (mailto:PAGPEG at aol.com) 
 
 
In a message dated 3/28/2007 10:31:26 AM Pacific Daylight Time,  
malecm at gmail.com writes:
 

On 3/26/07, Mary  McCanta <_mary at mccanta.com_ (mailto:mary at mccanta.com) > 
wrote: 

In  Emeryville near the UA Theater we saw a hummingbird that looks very
white  (not albino), with just a faint bit of color on the sides and a 
little  black edging on the underside of the tail.  The back and  head
look completely white, the bill is dark.  We've gone  through all our
bird books and haven't found anything that looks this  light colored all 
over, but it seems much smaller than the Anna's hummer  I have nesting in
my yard.  Could it be a juvenile  Anna's?  The other hummer that looked
approximately the same in  the bird book is a juvenile Costa's since it's 
so much smaller than an  Anna's but that would be pretty rare here.  If
anyone else  lives near Emeryville and can take a look, maybe you can ID
better than  me!

My partner has seen this bird every day around 1-2pm when she  walks to 
lunch and I saw it there in that time period as well. Not sure  if it's
around at other times of day, but it's possible.  Exact  location:  in
the parking lot between the UA Emeryville Theater  and the Marketplace 
there is a long walkway lined with  trees.  The hummer is usually singing
in these trees which  fortunately don't have their leaves yet.  We
watched it for  about 10 minutes before it finally flew off into the
(leafed out) trees  on the the other side of the lot and we couldn't
refind  him.  Not sure if the rain will deter it or  not!


Also see:
 
     
See, [EBB Sightings] White hummer?
3/28/2007 10:31;26 Pacific Daylight  Time     
_malecm at gmail.com_ (mailto:malecm at gmail.com) 




On 3/28/2007  10:56:10 AM Pacific Daylight Time 
_bht at saber.net_ (mailto:bht at saber.net)  says:
 
Juveniles look just like adults as far as green is concerned (they  lack
the mature gorgets of course). This guy just seems to be lacking  
pigmentation. 
Benson

On Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:26:02 -0800, "Mary  Malec"  wrote:
> I live only a few minutes from  where you so accurately described, so I went
> there at noon and took some  photos of this hummer.  I don't know enough
> about hummers to ID but  maybe someone else can.
> 
>  http://www.flickr.com/photos/marymalec/






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