A Calliope Hummingbird molts its gorget feathers

Calliope Hummingbirds are primarily a western species with isolated reports, mostly in the winter, from areas far east of their normal range.

One especially cooperative calliope first arrived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as an immature bird in 2002. He winters for about four months, then presumably returns to his breeding grounds in the summer.

This particular calliope has an affinity for the yard of Dennis Demcheck, who provided photographs showing the sequence of the bird's molt. The relative isolation of the bird made him an ideal study for his molting patterns. The following photographs focus on the gorget.

During the months of November and December and at least the first half of January, the gorget remained in the typical adult male alternate plumage.

The early February photographs show the molting of the gorget feathers.

The February 24 photograph seems to show new gorget feathers beginning to appear, and by March 14 all the gorget feathers had been replaced.

Note that in the photos of January 15 and March 2 you can see an insect egg case wrapped around the twig. Dennis noted that for month after month the hummer was extremely territorial, favoring the exact same spot on the same twig!