{"id":425,"date":"2013-01-01T18:30:45","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T01:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wildnaturephotos.com\/Blog\/?p=425"},"modified":"2013-01-05T16:12:37","modified_gmt":"2013-01-05T23:12:37","slug":"sexing-bee-hummingbirds-its-not-all-in-the-tail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wildnaturephotos.com\/Blog\/2013\/01\/sexing-bee-hummingbirds-its-not-all-in-the-tail\/","title":{"rendered":"Sexing Bee Hummingbirds – it’s (not) all in the tail…"},"content":{"rendered":"

After our recent trip to Cuba<\/a>, Janet Ruth and Bruce Neville made an interesting observation: we probably saw a lot of male Bee Hummingbirds (Mellisuga helenae<\/em>) in nonbreeding plumage. Like males of most other hummingbird species, Bee Hummingbird males in breeding plumage (“Definitive Basic Plumage”) are easy to identify – they have fiery metallic\/iridescent pinkish-red feathers on the gorget\u00a0and head that are lacking in females and juveniles of both sexes. Distinguishing the age and sex of non-breeding-plumage males gets more complicated…<\/p>\n

I initially assumed that the hummingbird shown below was a female Bee Hummingbird; there is a gray-white breast and no fiery red gorget or head feathers (i.e., “helmet”). Given the location (Cuba), it is unquestionably a Bee Hummingbird. But is it a female?<\/p>\n

\"Bee<\/a>

Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), perched. Cuba<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

In Field Guide to the Birds of Cuba<\/a>, Garrido and Kirkconnel describe the Bee Hummingbird as follows:<\/p>\n

Male<\/em>: iridescent deep blue to green above, gray below. Head, chin and throat fiery iridescent pink or red. Tail iridescent blue, very short and rounded. Non-breeding males lack a gorget and so resemble females but have black-tipped tail. Female<\/em>: larger, with bluish green back and gray underparts. Tips of outer tail feathers white.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Spanish-language version<\/a> of the same book contains descriptions of the (identical) plates that the English version lacks, and the Spanish text purportedly has fewer errors than the English-language version (Orlando H. Garrido, 2012, personal communication). On the description page for Plate 30 (L\u00e1mina 30), the Spanish version of the book\u00a0describes the juvenile Bee Hummingbird as:<\/p>\n

“Similar a la hembra. La plumas externas de la cola con bordes en blanco” or
\n“Similar to the female. The outer tail feathers with white edges.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Careful examination of the admittedly small plates appears to show white tips on the retrices of the “immature” (labeled male, English version) and \u00a0“Juvenil” (sex not identified, Spanish version) Bee Hummingbird. \u00a0Therefore, from these descriptions it appears that both females (adult and immature) and immature males have white-tipped outer retrices.<\/p>\n

There is very little original research specific to the Bee Hummingbird plumage and molt patterns that I am aware of; therefore, closely related hummingbird research might be helpful for further clarification. Other members of Mellisugini (the “Bees” clade – see McGuire et al<\/a>) are the most appropriate comparators.\u00a0The \u2018\u2018Bees\u2019\u2019 include the following monophyletic assemblage of genera: Archilochus<\/em>, Calliphlox<\/em>, Calypte<\/em>, Chaetocercus<\/em>, Myrtis<\/em>, Rhodopis<\/em>, Selasphorus<\/em>, and Stellula<\/em>. \u00a0Although\u00a0Mellisuga<\/em> was not included in these recent phylogenetic studies, not surprisingly, the Bee Hummingbird would\u00a0likely be nested within this monophyletic assemblage based on size, plumage patterns, soft-part coloration, etc.<\/p>\n

Anna’s (Calypte anna<\/em>) is perhaps the best studied of the Bees. The Birds of North America<\/a> description of Anna’s “Appearance<\/a>” describes the molt strategy of Anna’s Hummingbird as Complex Basic Strategy<\/a>; the most relevant portion is extracted here:<\/p>\n

Formative Plumage<\/strong>
\n“First Basic” or “Basic I” plumage according to Humphrey and Parkes (1959) and later authors; see revision by Howell et al. (2003). Present primarily Aug-Jul.\u00a0Indistinguishable\u00a0from Definitive Prebasic Plumages, sex for sex, in most birds following complete Preformative Molts. Some males in Formative Plumage can be identified by having one or\u00a0more retained juvenal rectrices with white tips, incomplete throat and (especially) crown gorget feathering, and\/or reminents of white in the tips of the formative\u00a0rectrices (Pyle 1997, Pyle et al. 1997). Females may also retain rectrices but similarity in color patterns make it difficult to confirm if retained feathers juvenal or\u00a0not.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So with Anna’s, it seems clear that the lack<\/em> of white-tipped retrices is only found in males, and juvenile males may<\/em> retain white-tipped retrices.<\/p>\n

What about other “Bee” species? There is some nice comparative data on the plumage of\u00a0Selasphorus<\/em>\u00a0species (Stiles 1983<\/a>). \u00a0With even a cursory examination of the figures in the paper, it is immediately clear that “white tips\u00a0on retrices” is a predominant trait of females and immatures, and the presence of any white on the retrices of adult males varies by species. All-black retrices on females do not occur<\/em>.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

So what about the “female” Bee Hummingbird that I presented earlier, or other hummers that I (and other photographers) photographed on this trip? \u00a0Careful examination of contemporaneous images shows new iridescent red feathers starting to appear on the head, as well as a probable gorget. \u00a0Furthermore, all of the images of these birds show black retrices, and none of the retrices have white tips. \u00a0In other words, none of these birds are females. They are likely adult males in non-breeding plumage<\/del>\u00a0juvenile males in Preformative (First Prebasic) molt. \u00a0Janet and Bruce, you nailed it! \u00a0(And thanks to\u00a0Sheri L. Williamson<\/a>\u00a0for her comments below.)<\/p>\n

\"Bee<\/a>

Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), juvenile male, perched. Cuba<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bee<\/a>

Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), juvenile male, perched. Cuba<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bee<\/a>

Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), juvenile male, perched. Cuba<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bee<\/a>

Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), juvenile male, perched. Cuba<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bee<\/a>

Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), juvenile male, perched. Cuba<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bee<\/a>

Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), juvenile male in flight near the red flowers of Firebush (Hamelia patens). Cuba<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bee<\/a>

Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), juvenile male, in flight near the red flowers of Firebush (Hamelia patens). Cuba<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bee<\/a>

Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), juvenile male, in flight near the red flowers of Firebush (Hamelia patens). Cuba<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bee<\/a>

Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), juvenile male, in flight behind a honeybee near the red flowers of Firebush (Hamelia patens). Cuba<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After our recent trip to Cuba, Janet Ruth and Bruce Neville made an interesting observation: we probably saw a lot of male Bee Hummingbirds (Mellisuga helenae) in nonbreeding plumage. Like males of most other hummingbird species, Bee Hummingbird males in breeding plumage (“Definitive Basic Plumage”) are easy to identify – they have fiery metallic\/iridescent pinkish-red […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biology","tag-cuba"],"yoast_head":"\nSexing Bee Hummingbirds - it's (not) all in the tail... - WildNaturePhotos Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wildnaturephotos.com\/Blog\/2013\/01\/sexing-bee-hummingbirds-its-not-all-in-the-tail\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sexing Bee Hummingbirds - it's (not) all in the tail... - WildNaturePhotos Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After our recent trip to Cuba, Janet Ruth and Bruce Neville made an interesting observation: we probably saw a lot of male Bee Hummingbirds (Mellisuga helenae) in nonbreeding plumage. 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