Most are gone from southern British Columbia by the end of July. They begin returning to Mexico in late June. Black-chins arrive in Canada in late May, following their migration out of Mexico. The female lacks the characteristic coloring on the chin and upper throat and lower throat.īlack-chins breed from southern British Columbia to Mexico. A white upper breast looks like a collar against the gorget. He has a black chin and upper throat with a violet, iridescent lower throat which is known as a gorget (pronounced gore-jet). The male is dull metallic green above and gray below. It weighs three to three and one-half grams, which is about equivalent to the weight of a dime plus a dollar bill. The black-chinned hummingbird measures about three and one-half inches long with a three and three-quarter-inch wing span. One assumes he has a first name, but none has made its way down through the ages. Alexandre, who discovered the species in the Sierra Madre of Mexico and sent it to Mexico City. The third dictionary ends the definition with a simple question: "But why? Because the bird steals the pollen from the flower and dashes away?" In all three cases, the word alexandri refers to a Dr. Thracian poet who was famous for his "savage wit and flaunting of conventions." A second traces the name to the Greek "first among birds" from "arch" meaning "chief'" and "lochos" meaning "body of people." A third translates Archilochus to "chief brigand" from archos (chief or first in importance) and lochos (ambush or a company of men). One states that the generic name, Archilochus, honors a 6th century B. Three dictionaries of bird names provide three distinct etymologies. While this bird's common name, "black-chinned hummingbird," is simple enough not to need an etymological (word origin) explanation, its scientific name, Archilochus alexandri, does not share the same fate. Black-Chinned Hummingbird Archilochus alexandri
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