Blue Throated Mountain Gem Hummingbird

Normally a single animal would not get its own posting, but this was worth mentioning because this was the first time it had ever been found in our area!     This hummingbird does come to Arizona every year, but it is usually found on Mt. Lemmon or in the Chiricahua mountains.   This time one had traveled down to one of my favorite spots, the Sonoran Desert Museum, where I was able to get some photos of them.

I had decided to go try to do some photography and get some exercise by walking through the museum.  I was preparing to call it a day when a super nice gentleman saw my camera and stopped me to ask if I got any pictures of a Holiday Whooby Whatty.    That is not what he actually said, but I had no idea what he was talking about and did not catch the bird’s name at first.   He proceeded to walk me back the way he came and explained the hummingbird was not usually down this low and that it was the largest hummingbird in the United States.

Once we arrived where he had spotted it earlier, we started to look.    I did not see anything at first and then noticed a pretty bird sitting back in a bush near us.    I went to take a picture of the bird while stating “I am not sure what I am looking for but this is a pretty bird”.    The gentleman got super excited and told me that was it!   We got a few pictures while it was in our area, but a loud group of guests scared it away.

We tried to get it to come back to where we could see it, but we were unsuccessful.    It may have come back later, but I decided to call it a day there on that positive note.