On 3 July Charles Melton reported that an ABA Code-4 Plain-capped Starthroat (Heliomaster constantii) was photographed coming to a feeder at a private residence in the lower Miller Canyon, Huachuca Mountains, Arizona.
Some recent closure information for birding areas in Southeast Arizona can be found here:
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/wildfire/
And information on the results of Horseshoe
Two Fire in the Chiricahuas here:
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2225/
Plain-capped Starthroat was named in honor of Charles Constant, an 19th Century physician and taxidermist (Hummingbirds of North America, Williamson). It is one of four members of the Heliomaster genus and the only member of the genus to make it into the ABA Area. It is resident from the Pacific Slope of northwest Mexico to northwest Costa Rica. In much of its range, Plain-capped Starthroat is mostly insectivorous and often hawks insects with swift-like flights including glides (Hummingbirds of North American, Williamson). In Arizona starthroats often visit sugarwater feeders and visit the blossoms of flowering plants, especially feeding on flowering agaves after post-breeding dispersal. On their breeding grounds they take nectar from a variety of trees, large cacti, and shrubs where they are often seen using high perches (Handbook of Birds of the World, Volume 5).
