Thursday, August 4, 2011

Black-Chinned Hummingbird

The Black-Chinned Hummingbird is one of the less vibrantly colored species, being mostly iridescent green with a bit of dark, even purple on the chin. However, they live and breed in the Southwest and Arizona throughout the year, unlike most of the Southwest's pretty birds, so I give them respect for that.




Mourning Dove

 One of the most common doves in North America, and also the most commonly hunted, the Mourning Dove is still an interesting specimen in its own right. Apart from its tell-tale, gloomy song, the Mourning Dove is the fastest flying dove, and also has a uniquely long tail that fans out to help it break and stabilize when landing.
They can be found all over the continental U.S. nearly year round. Their blue eye-ring and black spotting on their backs help to tell them apart from their larger cousins, the White-Winged Dove.