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A couple of months ago, after vast effort, I posted some spectacular pictures of one of our backyard hummingbirds. I wanted to know what kind of hummingbird it was, and figured it should be no problem identifying it. But our bird commenters failed me. “We need to see it from behind,” they wailed. Sheesh.

But today is our lucky day! I saw Hopper become intently interested in something, and when I followed her gaze there was a hummingbird facing away from me. I had time for one quick photo, and this is it. So I’m giving the bird people a second chance. I don’t actually know if this is the same variety of hummingbird as last time, but it probably is, don’t you think? And now we have both front and back photos. So what is this little guy?

ANSWER: Juvenile male Anna’s hummingbird. Unless someone decides to argue about this.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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