Male, female or juvenile?
Watching this bird we have gone back and forth each time we see her... I mean him. Maybe her.
Also, I'm concerned with all the bald-headed cardinals we've seen the last year. Currently we have 3 completely bald and 2 almost bald. Hopefully it's just abnormal molting and not mites or some kind of disease. Do any of you see lots of bald birds?
Comments (6)
- 9 years ago
Thanks for settling that, rob. Amazes me how easily the answer came after so much discussion with DH. This photo made me second guess it was a male.
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Comments (5)I don't know if it will work for you or not, but there were no usable male flowers open when my last female flower opened. I took one of the closed male flowers that were starting to "ripen" and getting ready to open and peeled the flower petals off of it. I rubbed it with my finger to be safe and some pollen came off even though it was not yet open. The best thing I can say to do if you're worried about it, is to just test it. Worse comes to worse you cut a male flower for nothing. Oh well, there will be more later. Or, if you don't want to do that, you can wait. Everyone else is right, there will be plenty of male and female flowers later. My watermelon plant did that. My female flowers opened first and started dying off. I know, it's odd and I couldn't figure out why. Anyways, the male flowers came a bit after that and I had lots of personal sized watermelon. Good luck to you and keep up hope!...See MoreFinally an adult female!! Am I seeing a baby male hummer??
Comments (2)Donna, as far as I know, the immature RT males do have the white throats but might have a speck of black on them. I noticed several like that a few years ago and assumed they were females with specks of black and thought, good deal, now I'll be able to ID these hummers! LOL! Needless to say, I later learned that what I was really seeing were juvenile males. It was LATE in the season, probably September, when I saw the young males with a black speck or two. I have no idea how long it takes for their true colors to develop by I assumed it would be several months after they've hatched. I'm seeing lots of "what I think are" females right now. Some probably are young males. Janie...See MoreJuvenile Male
Comments (12)My wife and I are new to this, here in Upper East Tennessee, so bear with me. My question is how do you ID the juvenile females from the adult females. The reason that I ask, we have three feeders on our front porch where we sit in the early morning and in the evenings. The hummers hover just a couple of feet from our heads,having become acclimated to our presence. There is one female or juvenile that does not take any guff off of the territorial males, who attempt to ward off any interlopers. Again, how can I tell if we have an adult female or a juvenile that is full of vim and vigor?...See MoreHow Do You...
Comments (2)The easiest way for me to tell is to look at the tail. I usually cannot get close enough without alerting the bird. Try this site, it is what I have used! By the way, I last spotted a hummer on Sunday, was suprised to see a 'what I presumed to be' young male at my Red Nicotiana and Purple Petunias (can you believe it!) today. Must be a migrater, mine were almost all female this year, and knew how to use the feeders!! I guess all males must be taught........ :) Christy Hope you find this usefull! Here is a link that might be useful: rubythroat...See More- 9 years ago
Because of a recent bald male, I have read many articles about balding birds. This one was bald for about 8 months. I worried about his little cold, bald head all winter long but never found a reason why he wouldn't have grown the feathers back. Even now his feathers are not completely grown back. He's distinguishable from the other birds by the lack of a few feathers along the back of his neck. I hope he doesn't go bald again this year. Besides that one, we have 2 other bald males and a bald female. She has been bald for several months but seems like her feathers are coming back in nicely now.
Here's another baldy.
9 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
9 years ago
rob333 (zone 7b)