The Tale of a Hummingbird Tail
By Dan Weisz Male Broad-billed Hummingbird, all photos by Dan Weisz Male Broad-billed Hummingbirds are arguably the most beautiful hummingbirds in the United States. According to Cornell’s All About Birds site, with proper lighting, their "vivid, red bill, emerald body, and glittering sapphire throat sets it apart from other US hummingbirds." We were recently watching the hummingbirds on the back porch, and one in particular continued to perch where we could easily see it. That day, it spent quite a bit of time preening. This feather maintenance helps to clean the feathers as well as to realign them for flight performance. Looking closely, you can see the one little feather the hummingbird was working on at that moment. As we watched him, we realized that this Broad-billed Hummingbird was missing all of its tail feathers! This healthy looking bird seemed to be in great shape. It was active and very aggressive in protecting two of the feeders on the back porch. Its flight did
