The male black-chinned is metallic green above and white below, with green flanks. The bill is long, straight and slender. The male has a black face and chin, a glossy purple gorget and a dark forked tail. The female has a dark rounded tail with white tips and no throat patch. I've seen lots of what I thought were black-chinned hummingbirds and ultimately most turn out to be something else. They can look a lot like broad-tailed, rufous, calliope, Allen's, lucifer, Anna's and Costa's hummingbirds. The male, with a black throat, can be confused with the other hummingbirds, such as the Anna's, with a red throat, in poor light. I'm often seeing them in early or evening light and it is difficult to distinguish, particularly because we have lots of Anna's and much fewer black-chinneds. It is even more difficult to distinguish a female black-chinned from a female Anna's or Costa's hummingbird (I've had my own black-chinned identifications on iNaturalist negated by both). The female Anna's is larger, often with red feathers in the center of the throat and gray underparts. Almost half of Costa's have small throat patch of violet feathers, but others have entirely white throats. Female black-chinneds have club-shaped outer primaries while ruby-throated have knife-shaped outer primaries. Apparently you need to look at the shape and width of inner primary flight feathers (good luck with that).
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| This is my only verified black-chinned male on iNaturalist, seen at Big Morongo on May 11, 2022. |
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| This is my only female black-chinned verified on iNaturalist, also at Big Morongo, on October 3, 2022. |
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| Illustration of female from Birds of the World. |
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| Illustration of male from Birds of the World. |
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| Range from Birds of the World. |
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