First confirmed Santa Cruz County record, found by Sheri Howe on 19 October 2017 visiting feeders behind private residence. The owner originally welcomed birders and posted signs with directions to the viewing area but this private property is now closed. The bird was last seen 5 November 2017.
When perched this adult male Broad-billed Hummingbird often quivered its tail rapidly, sometimes while calling. The loud chittering call was similar to the call of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, but more emphatic and without the pauses in the phrasing of the kinglet. The row of whitish feathers on the bird's throat appear to be new feathers growing and still in their sheaths.
This hummingbird was about the size of Anna's Hummingbird but with a broad, long bright red bill with dark tip. The white undertail coverts, green abdomen contrasting with shiny blue throat, and dull bronzy-green back are features consistent with the migratory northernmost C. l. magicus breeding in SE Arizona, SW New Mexico and adjacent NW Mexico. The race C. l. doubledayi of Southern Mexico, sometimes recognized as a separate species "Doubleday Hummingbird" has dark blue/black undertail coverts, blue forehead and longer more deeply forked tail. Another race, sometimes split as Lawrence's Hummingbird, C. l. lawrencei is confined to the Tres Marias Islands off western Mexico. It has a green throat.
Two reports of Broad-billed Hummingbirds in Santa Cruz in 1985 and 1986 were not accepted by the California Bird Records Committee. They may have been hybrids or possibly aberrant Anna's Hummingbirds.
Digiscoped with Panasonic DMC-LX5 | Nikon FieldScope III | 30XWA | hand-held (no adapter).
References:
California Bird Records Committee [CBRC] (R. A. Hamilton, M. A. Patten, and R. A. Erickson, eds.). 2007. Rare Birds of California, Western Field Ornithologists, Camarillo, CA: Retrieved from Rare Birds of California Online: http://wfopublications.org/Rare_Birds.
Powers, Donald R. and Susan M. Wethington. 1999. Broad-billed Hummingbird (Cynanthus latirostris), version 2.0. In The Birds of North America (P. G. Rodewald, editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bna.430