Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 13:36:05 -0700
From: Sheri Williamson <tzunun@mindspring.com>
To: HUMNET-L@listserv.lsu.edu
Subject: [HUMNET-L] At least it's a bird

Humnetters who've been around this list even a short while know how often
various species of sphinx moths are mistaken for hummingbirds, and many of
you have probably heard the story (perhaps apocryphal) about the
herpetologist working in central Texas who reported a large green and red
"hummingbird" catching and eating a fish. Well, yesterday I experienced a
new (for me) case of mistaken identity, but the resulting conversation was
all too familiar.

The head of a project to renovate a derelict school building here in Bisbee
called to try to persuade SABO to use their facility for the area's two
birding festivals, and one of her selling points was that there were dozens
of "hummingbirds" nesting inside the building, entering through broken
windows to build their mud nests on the walls.

"Actually, those would be swallows," I informed her gently.

"Oh, no, they're hummingbirds," she replied.

"Nooo," I said, somewhat more emphatically, "hummingbirds don't nest in
colonies in abandoned buildings or use mud in their nests. They're probably
Barn Swallows. They have short bills, iridescent blue backs, rusty reddish
undersides, and long tails, don't they?"

"No, they look just like hummingbirds. They so cute the way they come in
and out all day long!" she insisted, as if the birds' cuteness and activity
level alone somehow constituted proof of their trochilitude.

"Well, I *am* an ornithologist, and I *assure* you that the birds you've
described are swallows."

"Well, I'm POSITIVE they're hummingbirds. Come up to visit us and you'll
seefor yourself."

"If I come up, I'm going to see that they're swallows," I warned, giving
herone last chance to avoid embarrassment.

"No, no, you'll see that I'm right. Just come on up and you'll see!"

I gave up. Sigh....

Sheri Williamson
Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory
Bisbee, AZ
Personal e-mail: tzunun@mindspring.com
Business e-mail: sheri@sabo.org
http://www.sabo.org