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Curious Juvenile RT

17 years ago

Here's one of my curious and precocious juvenile male ruby throats. He's big enough to chase off other hummers, but not big enough to have a full gorget yet! The shot's in shade...I'll try and catch him in the sun later.

Comments (6)

  • 17 years ago

    Cool! It does look like a baby. I hope I will see some here soon!!!! :c)

    I had no idea what a gorget was, so I googled it. This came up. Quite intimidating if you ask me.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Somebody's photo gallery of gorget

  • 17 years ago

    LOL! Simply put, The bright-colored area on the throat and chin is called a gorget on the male. Female hummingbirds do not have a gorget. Normally we don't see that flaring like you saw in the pictures that you posted a link to. When you see a male Ruby throated hummer with that flash of red at the throat that is the gorget.

    Those pictures did appear to be very intimidating indeed.

    Penny

  • 17 years ago

    Now I am completely confused. Those green hummingbirds in that gallery I linked to were male ruby throated hummingbirds? The male that visits my feeder has no green at all. It is black with red under its chin. Perhaps it is not a ruby throat at all?

  • 17 years ago

    I just saw my first ruby throat today. Its been a few years but he came back.

    Right now, I have 3 hummers. 2 female (I think one of the females is a juvenile)and one male.

    One of the females was at the feeder so longer that I could see the water bubbles going up to the top as she ate and ate. I couldn't believe it --- she was at the feeder for a good 3-5 minutes.

    I can't wait for my HummZinger's to arrive to see if I can draw in a few more. Come August they will be around eating a lot and I want to find out how many hummers I lured into my garden this year.

  • 17 years ago

    Ken,
    The rubythroats can appear to be black depending on the amount of light their plumage is reflecting. Without seeing them in person I would just about stake my life that your hummers are ruby throated hummers since that is the only hummer that breeds in the northeast. I have had males that appeared black and even the gorget took on a black cast but they were definitely Ruby throated hummers.

    Penny

  • 17 years ago

    Ken

    Ditto what Penny has said. It is the sunlight that brings out the coloring. On an overcast day all you would see would be black and black under the chin and on the other side of the coin with good light you could see some bright green on the backs. Since you live in New Jersey it is 99.99% chance it is a rubythroat. Im sorry to say that from the mid-west all the way over to the east coast we are limited to the RT and that includes me. But hey we are lucky, England doesnt have them , Europe doesnt have them, so count our lucky stars. They are only found in the Americas.

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