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Friday, August 22, 2008

The other day I saw a black and blue hummingbird

It might have been a Blue-throated Hummingbird, or perhaps a Black-chinned Hummingbird without much of a light belly. Both can appear black (although actually green) and have a blue mark on their throat.

Either is an unusual thing, as they are generally found in the southwest and Mexico, although they might be found further east as a vagrant, I suppose. Or I could just be misidentifying it. They are technically green and blue, but appear black in many photographs and in poor light. As it hovered, I couldn't see the green sheen--it looked like it was black with blue on the throat. It was fairly large for a hummingbird, meaning the jury would be leaning towards the blue-throated one. At the time I remember thinking it was a big black and blue swallowtail butterfly when I glimpsed it, then I realised it was moving differently and it hovered long enough for me to see the beating of the wings.

It was so cool.

Here are some pictures others have taken of the blue-throated hummingbird that seem very close to what I saw.

And here's a video of a hummingbird cooling off in a sprinkler:

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