I Am Lucifer!

I wasn't confident about the identity of the hummer sitting on the feeder two days ago because it had a curved bill!  (The blip has now been edited.) I had never seen that before.  I looked in my Birds of Arizona, Birds of Southern Arizona and Audubon Book of the Southwestern States for an answer.  The Lucifer hummingbird was listed in only one of them.  It's range out of Mexico into our state barely reaches into extreme southeastern Arizona.  I had a glimmer of hope.

Next I called my friend Alma, who knows all things hummingbirds, or at least a zillion things more than me, and expressed my suspicion about it being a Lucifer.  She asked me to email me photos.  She then forwarded them to the founder of the Tucson Mountains Hummingbirds Rescue who confirmed what I thought!  The rare (for this area) Lucifer had been visiting my yard...

This was her response to Alma to seeing my photos:
Looks like a female Lucifer to me with of course the decurved bill and also the head with dark eye line border.  And her tail is long and forked and tail feathers (from what we can see) are pointed.  She is also slim in appearance...characteristic of a Lucifer. 

Tell your friend to enjoy ...she might not stick around for long.  But of course we never say never!
Noreen/TMHR


I am stoked!