Here is the Hummingbird Oasis in the Summer.  The water feature was designed to attract birds to entertain me from my office window.  Since this was put in, I have had birds bathing from all the standard Ohio birds and also less seen birds including Indigo Buntings, Orioles, Prothonotary Warblers, Pine Warblers, and lots of Ruby Throated Hummingbirds.

Bird Stream from Avian Aquatics.

picture by Allen Chartier

This was the setup used to capture this little girl.  The day before, Allen had used a 8’ X 8’ mist net and moved her feeder.  She was not happy and refused to participate.  She hovered outside my window and made some very loud noises.  I think she said some bad hummingbird words.  Then she tried every hole in the thistle feeder hoping for juice in there.  Finally, she got very close to my window hovered and then turned tail and was off.

The set-up pictured here worked in 15 minutes.  

After banding her, weighing her (3.13 grams) and checking her beak and feathers she was declared to be healthy, although slim, and from this year's brood.

This is me releasing her back into the wild of my yard.  What a thrill to hold such a tiny creature.

picture by Allen Chartier

These are her tail feathers to show that she is indeed a Rufous (Selasphorus rufus).

picture by Allen Chartier

picture by Art Weber

Notice the band on her leg. Double click to enlarge.

This last picture is of her head and you can actually see her tongue sticking out.  I think she was giving us the raspberries.

The colored spots on her throat are actually reddish orange and are iridescent.  We counted seven of them and I can see them from my office.  As she ages, she will get more of these until she has 40 or 50.  The males get them all around their necks just like a Rudy Throated Hummingbird.