Strange Hummer:

"On Wednesday, August 27, Tom Teeples received a phone call from a Mrs. Mitchell who reported she had a black and yellow hummingbird at her feeder, and that she had taken a number of snapshots of it but that no one seemed to know what it was. She wanted someone from Audubon to come take a look at it. Tom called me and asked me to go with him the following afternoon.

The woman was a genius with hummingbirds in general, she had two at least quart feeders out, filled with red fluid, and we must have seen twenty or thirty hummingbirds zipping about them in the 30 minutes or some we watched. All of them were immature ruby-throats, I didn't even see an adult ruby-throat, and we did not see the yellow and black bird.

Mrs. Mitchell had about a dozen snapshots of the bird, so there was no doubt as to its existence. I asked her if I could have one of the snapshots to see if we could get help in identifying the bird, and she agreed. I picked out the one which was clearest, and as you see, its a bit fuzzy. I came home and compared the snapshot with every bird in Sibley, and just had no idea. I'm earger to hear from experts to see if I overlooked something, or if it is a strange mutant. "

BJ Norris