Hummingbirds of Arizona: Plain-capped Starthroat

Plain-capped Starthroat

Plain-capped Starthroat at Paton's

Plain-capped Starthroat in Madera Canyon

Size: The Plain-capped Starthroat is a large hummingbird of about 5 inches, with the longest bill of any hummingbird in the US (up to 37 mm - 1.5 inches).

Identifying Characteristics: What sets it apart, other than its size is lightning bolt stripes on the side of the head and very pale, almost white breast and belly. The male has a red throat, the female has a purple central patch (as seen in the second photo). It is the only North American hummingbird with white on its back (see second photo above).

Habitat: Unlike the large Blue-throated and Magnificent it is found at lower elevations near century plants (as well as lower mountain elevations).

Range: Western Mexico with occasional sightings in Southern Arizona.

Seasons: June, July, August in Arizona.

Where to Find: No location is a sure thing.  It has been seen at Paton's in Patagonia, Montosa and Madera Canyons in the Santa Rita's, Ash Canyon in the Huachucas, French Joe Canyon in the Whetstone Mountains, Agua Caliente, (about four miles from us), Sabino Canyon in the Catalina Mountains, and Portal in the Chiricahua's. 

Comments: This is a very rare hummingbird to the US. (It's not listed in many of the US Field Guides). When it is spotted usually the "birding community" becomes aware and people head out with binoculars and cameras to that spot. You'll need to keep checking the Audubon's Rare Bird Alert and Birding News to know where to look -- provided one has been found. They are not abundant, and may only come to a feeder once every couple of hours.

Hummingbirds of Arizona: Magnificent (Rivoli's) Hummingbird

Magnificent or Rivoli's Hummingbird

Taxonomic authorities have made some changes in the name of this hummingbird over the past few years. Once referred to as the Rivoli's Hummingbird, then changed to the more commonly used Magnificent Hummingbird. It was then determined that the Magnificent had two subspecies, a northern one of Mexico and Arizona and a larger one of Costa Rica and Panama. The northern one is  now referred to as  Rivoli's and the southern one as Talamanca.

There is an interesting article on the coloration of bird feathers in the Cornell Lab Bird Academy. 

"The colors in the feathers of a bird are formed in two different ways, from either pigments or from light refraction caused by the structure of the feather. In some cases feather colors are the result of a combination of pigment and structural colors. The greens of some parrots are the result of yellow pigments overlying the blue-reflecting characteristic of the feathers."

There are three types of Pigmentation: Carotenoids, Melanins, and Porphyrins. These are substances in birds (plants, animals) that are in fact a specific color. A Cardinal for example has red pigmentation.

Structural Colorations are caused by light as it is refracted by the proteins in the feathers. The two types are Iridescent Feathers and Non-Iridescent Feathers. The most obvious example of Iridescent Feathers is the gorget of hummingbirds. And the most obvious example in hummingbirds on our property is Anna's Hummingbird whereby the crown and gorget can look "black" until the sunlight hits them and the red becomes striking. This is obviously very different than a cardinal which looks red regardless of how the sunlight hits its feathers. 

In the Magnificent/Rivoli's Hummingbird notice the purple crown in the first photo, which appears black in the second photo; and the bright green gorget in the first two photos that appears black in the third and fourth photos.

Female Magnificent

Size: At 5 1/4 inches the Magnificent (along with the Blue-throated) is the largest of the North American hummingbirds. Its wings are shorter than the Blue-throated, but bill much longer.

Identifying Characteristics: The male is dark green with iridescent purple forehead and crown, and more of a lighter metallic green gorget. Yet, in a different light, those bright colors disappear.  The female is more dark gray on it's breast, belly, and flanks.

Habitat: Riparian woodland, pine-oak forests, and mixed conifer forests, typically at a higher elevation, but can be found in wooded foothills near water.

Range: Extreme southeastern Arizona and into Mexico.

Seasons: March through October in Arizona Madrean Sky Island Mountains. 

Where To Find: It is a sure find in Miller Canyon, though not abundant.  They are often  seen at Ash Canyon, Ramsey Canyon, Madera Canyon, and Portal feeders, but always seen them at Miller. They are not common to the lower elevations such as The Azure Gate, though we did have one show up late one afternoon.

Comments: These large hummers are fun to watch. They are constantly chasing each other around. They tend to drink from the feeders furthest away, but with patience can be photographed on a tree branch much closer. Usually, there are a half dozen or more pairs hanging around Miller Canyon. 

Hummingbirds of Arizona: Lucifer Hummingbird

Who's visiting our Blog? We have had over 250,000 hits in 141 countries on our Blog since we began in 2008. Today we have had visitors from:  United States, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Ireland, North Macedonia, South Korea, Poland, Philippines, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, Germany, France, Canada, Spain, and New Zealand.

It is nice to know that regardless of ones' political, religious, or ethnic background they have a love of  nature.

Today, we are showing:

Lucifer Hummingbird

Size: Lucifer is a small hummingbird of about 3 1/2 inches with a long decurved bill.

Identifying Characteristics: Here it is the bill. Very distinctly long and curved in both male and female set it apart from other hummers. The male's magenta gorget is very long and streaked. Buffy flanks and rufous tail are also distinguishing characteristics. See photo of the male and female Lucifer. Identifying the male is seldom a problem. For the female you need a good angle of the bill for proper identification otherwise it could look like a Broad-tailed Hummingbird.

Habitat: Open arid desert often near agaves.

Range: Chisos Mountains of SW Texas and extreme southern mountains of Arizona.

Seasons: April through October,

Where To Find: Ash Canyon is a very reliable site every year. The feeders in Portal (Chiricahua Mountains) are a possibility. It is a rare species so checking the Audubon's Rare Bird Alert is helpful. 

They may frequent the feeders earlier in the season when there are not so many hummers to compete with, but I've seen them as late as September in Ash Canyon. 

Comments: Lucifers are not abundant and do not hang around the feeders. I have been to Ash Canyon (Bed and Breakfast) several times and been lucky a third of the time. But, I have also talked with others that have spent six to eight hours there without seeing one. This hummer requires patience. First to see one, and second to photograph one hovering or in a tree. Most cameras (and photographers) are not fast enough to manually or even auto focus while hovering. So, the trick is to focus on a particular feeder and then recenter on the hummer without changing the focus. 

Hummingbirds of Arizona: Costaa's Hummingbird

The Costa's Hummingbird

Size: The Costa's is a small hummingbird of about 3.5 inches with a short straight bill.

Identifying Characteristics: For the male it is a long, flared purple gorget. The female is much like the Black-chinned female except that there appears to be a dark gray "smear-like" patch in back of the eye. (very clear in the next to last photo). The female also appears duller; i.e. the back and rump are not as dark green as the Black-chinned. It can even appear grayish. The Costa's is a little "plumpier" than the black chinned as well.

Habitat: Open scrub desert, washes, canyons.

Range: Southern California and Southern Arizona.

Seasons: year round with highest concentrations from February through June.

Where To Find: Although not abundant, it is here at The Azure Gate year round. So this is one of the most reliable places to find Costa's. WOW Arizona is another location to try. Like the Calliope, though, they do not travel in large numbers. So finding them is more difficult.  

Comment: The Costa's, Broad-billed, and the Anna's are the three most frequently found hummingbirds here at The Azure Gate. Costa's and Anna's breed here during the Spring. They typically nest on outer branches of our Palo Verde trees. Their nests are a work of both art and engineering.  They are delicately woven and yet strong enough so that during high winds, the nest sways with the branches as one.  The nests are about two inches high, with an inside diameter of only an inch at most. Usually, two eggs - although at least one year there were three. The Costa's prefers red flowers. In California, that is the Red Penstemon. Here at The Azure Gate that means Salvia. They also feed on insects that they can catch around those flowers. 

Hummingbirds of Arizona: Calliope Hummingbird

The Calliope Hummingbird

Size: With a range of 2.75 to 3.25 inches the Calliope is the smallest bird in North America with a correspondingly short and straight bill.

Identifying Characteristics: The male is much easier to identify than the female because of the streaked rosy gorget. Distinguishing the female from the female Broad-tailed Hummingbird is challenging. The female has a less dense  streaked gorget, with pale buffy flanks, though not as buffy as the Broad-tailed. The bill is shorter and thinner. There is a white spot just behind the eye. The Calliope also has a shorter tail, so its wings when folded back are longer than the tail. That is not the case with the Broad-tailed whose tail is longer than the wings when folded back.  

Habitat: Subalpine forests and meadows.

Range: Southwestern British Columbia, Western United States, and Mexico.

Seasons: Summers in the Northwestern US, Winters in Mexico; July and August best in Southern Arizona.

Where To Find: Portal, Ash Canyon, Ramsy Canyon, and Miller Canyon are the best places to look. You will need to check the Audubon's Rare Bird Alert to help locate.

Comments: The Calliope is not a common visitor to hummingbird feeders. They are more solitary than most of the other hummers. The male is particularly hard to find. They prefer flowers to feeders which makes them only an occasional visitor to feeders. And even though small, distinguishing between a hummingbird that is 3 1/4 inches versus 3 1/2 or 3 3/4 is very difficult. The females are particularly hard to distinguish from other females, especially Anna's, the Black-chinned, and Broad-tailed females.  Anna's females have a small central patch.  Black-chinned's bill is longer and there is little or buff on the flanks. The Broad-tailed  looks identical at rest, although the tail projects well beyond the wing tips. The Broad-tailed when flying has an obvious rufous color on the outer tail feathers.

Hummingbirds of Arizona: Broad-tailed Hummingbird

The Broad-tailed Hummingbird

Broad-tailed Hummingbird feed her young

Male

Male

Size: The Broad-tailed Hummingbird is another medium sized hummingbird up to 4.25  inches and with a slightly smaller straight bill.

Identifying Characteristics: The tail when open is the give-away: white on the outer feathers, then black, then green, and finally bright orange. The male has a rosy red throat, but unlike Anna's, has a green crown. The male looks very much like a Ruby-throated Hummingbird from the East but their ranges don't overlap, so  distinguishing between them is typically not a problem. I am usually skeptical of "reported" sightings of the Ruby-throated in Arizona for this reason.  The female has buffy flanks unlike any of the other hummers except the Calliope and Rufous. The top photo on this page is a male. The hummer on the nest, the hummer feeding its young, and the hummer feeding from the flowers are females.

Habitat: Mountain forests and meadows, desert lowlands.

Range: Western United States and Mexico, although not along the coasts.

Seasons: Here from April through September.

Where to Find: The Azure Gate and most feeders in the Madrean Sky Islands (Miller Canyon, Ash Canyon, Ramsey Canyon, and Madera Canyon). 

Comments: They love flowers, so will share their time between feeders and flowers.  The females are much more plentiful around the feeder sites. Males only come to the feeders occasionally. Keep you eye out for flowers around feeders. Be ready, with your camera, when one comes to take flower nectar.

Hummingbirds of Arizona: Broad-billed Hummingbird

The Broad-billed Hummingbird:

Size: The Broad-billed Hummingbird is a small to medium size hummingbird at 3.5 to 4 inches with a slightly longer straight - and red - bill.

Identifying Characteristics:  The Broad-billed Hummingbird looks very similar to the slightly smaller White-eared Hummingbird, except that the White-eared has a distinctive white "lightning bolt" above the ear. Both are dark in color with dark blues and greens on breast and back, and both have a red bill which easily separates them from other hummingbirds. The Berylline which is also dark all over has rufous wings and has more green and no blue. The bill of the Berylline appears black, although there is a small amount of red on the lower bill near the chin.  The Berylline also has very distinctive rufous color on the wings which is  clearly visible in flight.

Habitat: Within its range, there is a wide variation in its prefered habitat. It can be found in Mountains, Canyons, Riparian areas,  and Sonoran desert. 

Range: Western Mexico and the Madrean Sky Islands of Southern Arizona. It is the most common hummingbird of northwestern Mexico.

Seasons: March through September in the mountain areas; winters in the lower scrub and sonoran desert.

Where to Find:    The Broad-billed Hummingbird can be found frequently around The Azure Gate (bottom right photo). High probability locations are Ramsey, Miller, Ash, and Madera Canyon. You'll often see them in Patagonia and the San Pedro River feeders too. Any of these locations should produce results. In Madera Canyon, for example there may be as many as 20 or 30 feeding at Kubo Cabins daily. The same is true in Ash, Miller, and Ramsey Canyons.

Comments: The Broad-bill population is much higher than the White-eared so is more often seen. They arrive in the US in large numbers  and always seem to be the most active hummers in the feeding sites. They spend much time chasing each other.  They also take nectar from a variety of flowers and catch insects by hawking and gleaning. As with most hummers they have very long tongues which enable them to get inside flowers -- and feeders (lower left photo).