[cobirds] Re: Historical Front Range abundance of Black-chinned Hummingbird and Blue Jay

Margaret, I live at WindCrest, SW of Denver (Highlands Ranch), near Chatfield Reservoir. We've had Black-chinned Hummingbirds in recent years at our feeders but not in abundance.I saw them at my feeder early in the summer. I also had occasional Black-chins at my home feeders in Centennial before moving here. At WindCrest we have many native plants in our gardens ,and they predictabley come to the Arizona Hummingbird (Zaucheneria) plants in our pollinator garden, This summer I had a remarkable experience of finding a Black-chinned nest at eye level -- 4-feet away on a pathway into my building. The mother appeared and I watched her sitting on the nest with two little fluff balls of grey. The nest was beautifully constructed of dry grasses and had a woven rim; it looked like intricately woven spider webs for reinforcement. I checked on the nest twice every day for a couple of weeks. Eventually one baby fledged, leaving a smaller one behind. The mother was not seen for a week or so, but the baby continued to grow. After a windstorm, I saw him on the rocks below his torn nest. He was then seen back in the partial nest for a few days. And the next time, I saw him on a branch below, clinging to a small limb. I think the mother must have been watching him and feeding him all along. Shortly after, I saw him in the center of the shrub and she was there feeding him. Both were gone the next time I passed by. A few days later I passed some flowering plants quite a distance from the nest and saw a mother and juvenile feeding there. I like to think it was the two of them, preparing to migrate. It ws a happy experience. A few weeks ago, our maintenance staff told me that multiple hummingbirds were being seen near a garage opening. I checked there and saw three Black-chinned Hummingbirds in small trees out side the garage. Later they reported that the birds were nesting in the garage. In August!

Michele Bloom

On Thursday, September 10, 2026 at 12:27:11 PM UTC-6 Margaret Smith wrote:

I spent a great deal of time south of (and above) Nederland at the University of Colorado Radio Astronomy Observatory during the spring, summer, and fall of 1973, monitoring solar activity for the protection of the Sky Lab astronauts. Black-chinned Hummingbirds were abundant at the RAO feeder (about half as common as Broad-tails), and obviously nesting in the proximity. Now, they are the most common daily visitors to my Boulder feeder, spring through fall, and obviously not migrants.

However, Bailey and Niedrach (1965) lists them as “resident in southwest and stragglers to the northward and east.” Andrews and Righter (1992) lists them as “casual in northeastern foothills (five records).”

I grew up in Denver (50s & 60s) and have lived in Boulder since 1970. I didn’t become a birdwatcher till the early 70s, but previously kept track of what I saw. I saw my first Blue Jay in north Boulder in 1978. Now, they are the most common species at my backyard feeder.

Bailey and Niedrach (1965) lists the first Denver Area record as 1937 and documents finding several subsequently. The Spring Count of 1962 shows “Boulder 1”. The map in Andrews and Righter (1992) shows gray (uncommon to fairly common) for them except in the eastern Platte Valley, and lists the first breeding record in Pueblo County in 1970.

Can the community please comment on time of arrival of abundance for these two species?

-- Margaret Smith

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[cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (10 Sep 2026) 20 Raptors

Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park
Golden, Greater Denver, Colorado, USA

To see hourly weather data and details of migrant raptors, look up this watch at hawkcount.org. This is a new raptor migration site identified and designated in mid-September 2024. This is Colorado's 1st fall hawk watch site, and the second hawk watch in Colorado. To get to the site which is along Lookout Mountain Rd. in Golden, enter either Windy Saddle Park or Mount Zion into Google Maps on your favorite navigation app, or enter the coordinates 39.7368,-105.2454. From the parking lot ascend the stone steps to the watch site. EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO THE HAWK WATCH TO ENJOY THE SPECTACLE OF RAPTOR MIGRATION, EVEN IF YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IDENTIFYING RAPTORS IN FLIGHT. We will help you to learn Raptor ID if you are interested. See https://groups.google.com/g/cobirds/c/Oznn4uc6MBk

Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 10, 2026
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	0	26	131
Osprey	0	10	12
Bald Eagle	1	1	2
Northern Harrier	0	1	2
Sharp-shinned Hawk	0	2	5
Cooper's Hawk	4	23	37
American Goshawk	0	0	0
Broad-winged Hawk	0	0	0
Red-tailed Hawk	10	99	256
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Swainson's Hawk	0	63	78
Ferruginous Hawk	0	1	1
Golden Eagle	0	1	2
American Kestrel	4	29	49
Merlin	0	0	0
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	1
Prairie Falcon	0	0	1
Mississippi Kite	0	0	0
Unknown Accipitrine	1	1	1
Unknown Buteo	0	0	1
Unknown Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	0	1
Total:	20	257	580

Observation start time:	08:15:00
Observation end time:	12:00:00
Total observation time:	3.75 hours
Official Counter	Liza Antony
Observers:

Visitors:
A pair from Wisconsin were interested in what I was doing. I explained briefly about fall migration of raptors.

Weather:
Wildfire smoke over Denver cleared by noon DST. Winds were variable and light for the first 2 hours and then were from ESE. Unusually there wee less than 5% cloud cover to the far SE. The air was quite grainy and the raptors looked blurry with binos and the spotting scope.

Raptor Observations:
The first raptor was a RT at 9.57 DST Most of the raptors were seen over Lookout mountain or the gap between Lookout mtn. and Green mtn. Non-migrant raptors: TV3; RT 4; CH 1

Non-raptor Observations:
The first paraglider took of at 11 AM DST Subsequently I saw 4 other paragliders. Other birds seen: STJA2, SPTO1,WTSW 4.CORA 4, BGGN 2

Predictions:
Mostly sunny with a high near 89F, Light west winds changing to east winds by 11AM

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Report submitted by Liza Antony (liza.antony15@gmail.com)
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]

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[cobirds] Bird Conservancy of the Rockies - Barr Lake Banding Report, 9/10/26

Today brought the biggest change in temperature this season, from the start of the day at 52 degrees to 82 five hours later when we closed.  A relatively slow day for what so far has been a very busy season for us, with only 41 birds banded:

Hammond's Flycatcher 1

Red-breasted Nuthatch 3

Rock Wren 1

Northern House Wren 2

Gray Catbird 2

Orange-crowned Warbler 1

Townsend's Warbler 1

MacGillivray's Warbler 1

Common Yellowthroat 1

Wilson's Warbler 23

Green-tailed Towhee 2

Song Sparrow 2

Dark-eyed Junco, Oregon 1

We are open Tuesday through Sunday, weather permitting, through October 23.  Most weekday mornings there is a visitor session from 7:30 to 8:30, and on the weekends there are sessions at 8, 9 and 10 a.m.  Reservations are needed; here is the link.   Please join us......It is a great year to visit Barr!

Meredith McBurney

Bander, Barr Lake Station

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies

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[cobirds] Chico Basin Ranch Banding Station Report-Bird Conservancy of the Rockies-September 10, 2026

A strange day for bird activity today with some early movement and then around 8:30 - 10AM, it was very quiet. We did squeak out 20 bird species for the day with Pine Sisken being first of the season. Yesterday after photo confirmation, we did catch a Blue-headed Vireo.

53 New Banded Birds

Wilson's Warbler- 21

MacGillivray's Warbler- 1

Orange-crowned Warbler- 1

Townsend's Warbler- 1

Unknown Yellow-rumped Warbler- 1( Once again a bird having both Myrtle and Audubon's Characteristics)

Willow Flycatcher- 1

Dusky Flycatcher- 1

Western Wood-pewee- 4

Olive-sided Flycatcher- 1

Warbling Vireo- 1 (taking measurements it was in the overlap of Western and eastern subspecies)

Cassin's Vireo- 1 

Pine Siskin- 2

Lincoln's Sparrow- 1

Green-tailed Towhee- 2

House Finch- 1

Western Tanager- 1

Yellow-breasted Chat- 3

Swainson's Thrush- 1

Gray Catbird- 2

No Recaptures

The banding station will be open tomorrow through Saturday from sunrise until @ 11:30 AM. Stop by and share your sightings with us. We would love to hear them.

If interested in visiting the banding station, please register online at www.aikenaudubon.com

Have a good day,

Julie Shieldcastle, Bander

Chico Basin Ranch

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies

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Re: [cobirds] Historical Front Range abundance of Black-chinned Hummingbird and Blue Jay

Margaret and all,

The eastern Blue Jay arrived in the Denver-Boulder area in the early 1960s when I was at CU.  During the first few years, the Blue Jay hybridized with the Steller’s Jay!  The hybrids had Steller’s Jay heads and Blue Jay tails. The hybrid birds had strange calls  as you might expect. There were some backcrosses, but I don’t remember what the birds looked like.

I don’t recall anything about the Black-chinned Hummingbird.

Note:  I saw my first Eurasian Collared-Dove in Colorado in 1995.

Paula Hansley

Louisville

On Thu, Sep 10, 2026 at 12:27 PM Margaret Smith <margaretalicesmith@gmail.com> wrote:

I spent a great deal of time south of (and above) Nederland at the University of Colorado Radio Astronomy Observatory during the spring, summer, and fall of 1973, monitoring solar activity for the protection of the Sky Lab astronauts. Black-chinned Hummingbirds were abundant at the RAO feeder (about half as common as Broad-tails), and obviously nesting in the proximity. Now, they are the most common daily visitors to my Boulder feeder, spring through fall, and obviously not migrants.

However, Bailey and Niedrach (1965) lists them as “resident in southwest and stragglers to the northward and east.”  Andrews and Righter (1992) lists them as “casual in northeastern foothills (five records).”

I grew up in Denver (50s & 60s) and have lived in Boulder since 1970. I didn’t become a birdwatcher till the early 70s, but previously kept track of what I saw. I saw my first Blue Jay in north Boulder in 1978. Now, they are the most common species at my backyard feeder.

Bailey and Niedrach (1965) lists the first Denver Area record as 1937 and documents finding several subsequently.  The Spring Count of 1962 shows “Boulder 1”.  The map in Andrews and Righter (1992) shows gray (uncommon to fairly common) for them except in the eastern Platte Valley, and lists the first breeding record in Pueblo County in 1970.

Can the community please comment on time of arrival of abundance for these two species?

-- Margaret Smith

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[cobirds] Historical Front Range abundance of Black-chinned Hummingbird and Blue Jay

I spent a great deal of time south of (and above) Nederland at the University of Colorado Radio Astronomy Observatory during the spring, summer, and fall of 1973, monitoring solar activity for the protection of the Sky Lab astronauts. Black-chinned Hummingbirds were abundant at the RAO feeder (about half as common as Broad-tails), and obviously nesting in the proximity. Now, they are the most common daily visitors to my Boulder feeder, spring through fall, and obviously not migrants. However, Bailey and Niedrach (1965) lists them as “resident in southwest and stragglers to the northward and east.” Andrews and Righter (1992) lists them as “casual in northeastern foothills (five records).” I grew up in Denver (50s & 60s) and have lived in Boulder since 1970. I didn’t become a birdwatcher till the early 70s, but previously kept track of what I saw. I saw my first Blue Jay in north Boulder in 1978. Now, they are the most common species at my backyard feeder. Bailey and Niedrach (1965) lists the first Denver Area record as 1937 and documents finding several subsequently. The Spring Count of 1962 shows “Boulder 1”. The map in Andrews and Righter (1992) shows gray (uncommon to fairly common) for them except in the eastern Platte Valley, and lists the first breeding record in Pueblo County in 1970. Can the community please comment on time of arrival of abundance for these two species? -- Margaret Smith -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds * All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include bird species and location in the subject line when appropriate. * Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/membership/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CEBC4574-5CFE-4837-8565-E1C23C108AB8%40gmail.com.

[cobirds] Nashville Warbler - SW Denver

Back in town (Athmar Park neighborhood, SW Denver Co.) for a brief visit and have been lucky to have added two (2) new Yard Birds so far!  Best being an immature/female NASHVILLE WARBLER this morning (Thurs., 10 Sept.’26).  In addition, there is at least one (1) WOODHOUSE’S SCRUB-JAY hanging out that has apparently been here since late August.  The warbler was repeated by another birder down the street (600 block of south Alcott), and the jay has been pretty vocal, so might be worth a check.  Please let me know separately if you’d like more information.

 

Good Birding,

Doug

Currently SW Denver