Rufous Hummingbird – CMBO Goshen Center, NJ

On the afternoon of November 21st, two of my friends and I stopped by the Cape May Bird Observatory’s Goshen Center to search for the Rufous Hummingbird that had been seen there since late October. After about 10 minutes of waiting and watching the two hummingbird feeders, we saw the hummer shoot past us and land in a distant tree. We had good looks at the bird despite how far away it was and then the bird flew off and we couldn’t find it again. Luckily, a little later while we were walking around searching for the hummer I heard the bird vocalize and then we spotted it again, this time perched only feet away in a bush. For the next ten minutes, we watched the bird at very close range as it perched in various bushes and fed from the two feeders. Lighting was terrible for getting good shots of the bird, but below are my two favorite photos that I took…..it helped that the bird perched only three feet away from me at times!

Rufous Hummingbird - young male (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)

Rufous Hummingbird - young male (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)