Types of Hummingbirds: A Field Guide to North American Species

How Many Species Are There?

Around fifteen hummingbird species breed or occur regularly north of Mexico, with a dozen or so more recorded as rare visitors. Guides give slightly different totals, because the line between a regular visitor and a rare one is partly a matter of judgment.

That is a tiny share of the family. There are more than 360 hummingbird species in the world, the great majority in Central and South America. Colombia, Peru and Ecuador each have well over a hundred. What sets the whole family apart is covered separately.

How to Identify a Hummingbird

Five things, roughly in order of usefulness.

1. Where and when. Location and season narrow the field more than anything else. East of the Mississippi there is essentially one breeding species. In southeastern Arizona in August there may be a dozen. Start with the list for your region.

2. The gorget. An adult male’s throat patch, the gorget, is usually the single best field mark. Its colour, shape and extent differ between species. The catch is that gorget colour is structural and depends on the viewing angle, so a brilliant red throat can look black when the light is wrong. How that colour works explains why patience with the angle pays off.

3. The tail. Tail shape and pattern matter most for females and young birds. Look at the amount of rufous, whether the outer feathers are tipped white, and whether the tail is rounded, forked or square.

4. The bill. Most North American hummingbirds have a straight, dark bill. A red bill, or a clearly curved one, narrows things down immediately.

5. Sound and behaviour. Some species are easier to hear than see. Others have telling habits, such as pumping the tail while hovering. The sounds hummingbirds make, including those made by their feathers, can settle an identification on their own.

A Note on Females and Young Birds

Adult males are the easy part. Females and immatures lack the bright gorget and are mostly green above and pale below. Several species look nearly identical.

With a female, put the most weight on range, tail pattern and bill shape. Accept that some individuals cannot be identified to species in the field, even by experts. That is normal, not a failure.

The Widespread Species

These eight account for the great majority of North American sightings.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris). The only hummingbird that breeds east of the Mississippi. The male has a ruby-red gorget that can look black at a flat angle, over an emerald back, and a forked tail. The female is green above and whitish below, with white tips to the outer tail feathers.

Black-chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri). The Ruby-throated’s western counterpart and a close relative. The male’s throat looks plain black until the light catches a thin violet band at its base. Both sexes habitually pump their tails while hovering, which is the most reliable clue.

Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna). A year-round resident of the Pacific coast. The male is the only North American hummingbird with rose-pink on the crown as well as the throat, so the whole head flashes at the right angle. Females often show a small patch of rose in the centre of the throat.

Costa’s Hummingbird (Calypte costae). A desert specialist. The male’s violet crown and gorget flare back along the sides of the neck into long points, like a moustache. Females are small, plain and short-tailed.

Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus). The fiery one. The male is largely coppery orange, with an orange-red gorget. It breeds farther north than any other hummingbird, into southeast Alaska, and is fiercely aggressive at feeders. It is also declining, and is now listed as Near Threatened.

Allen’s Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin). A California and southern Oregon coastal species, with a resident subspecies in the Los Angeles area. The male resembles a Rufous but has a green back. Females and immatures are close to impossible to separate from Rufous in the field.

Broad-tailed Hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus). The signature hummingbird of the Rocky Mountains. The male has a rose-magenta gorget and a green back. Adult males are best found by ear. The fluttering tip of the outermost wing feather produces a loud metallic trill in flight.

Calliope Hummingbird (Selasphorus calliope). The smallest bird native to North America north of Mexico, about 3.1 inches long. The male’s gorget is made of separate magenta rays on white, giving a streaked look no other species shares. The size extremes of the family put it in context.

The Borderland Specialties

In southern Arizona, New Mexico and Texas the list of possible species nearly doubles. These are Mexican species whose ranges just cross the border. The Southwest guide covers where and when to find them.

• Blue-throated Mountain-gem (Lampornis clemenciae). The largest hummingbird that breeds in the United States. Large and dark, with a blue throat in the male and bold white corners to a long dark tail.
• Rivoli’s Hummingbird (Eugenes fulgens). The second largest in the US, and the Magnificent Hummingbird until 2017. The male is dark, with a green gorget and a purple crown.
• Broad-billed Hummingbird (Cynanthus latirostris). Deep blue-green, with a vivid blue throat and a bright red bill tipped in black. The red bill alone sets it apart from almost everything else in the region.
• Violet-crowned Hummingbird (Ramosomyia violiceps). Clean white below, with a violet crown and a red bill. Unusually, the sexes look alike.
• Lucifer Hummingbird (Calothorax lucifer). Identified by its distinctly downcurved bill. A specialty of west Texas, especially Big Bend, and of southeastern Arizona.
• Buff-bellied Hummingbird (Amazilia yucatanensis). A green hummingbird with a buffy belly and a red bill. A year-round resident of southern Texas, with some birds wandering east along the Gulf Coast in winter.
• White-eared Hummingbird (Basilinna leucotis). Named for the bold white stripe behind the eye. Rare in the United States, but close to annual in the sky island mountains of Arizona.

Rare Visitors

A number of Mexican and Central American species turn up occasionally, usually as single birds that draw crowds of birders. They include the Berylline Hummingbird (Saucerottia beryllina), the Mexican Violetear, the Plain-capped Starthroat, Xantus’s Hummingbird, the Bumblebee Hummingbird and the Cinnamon Hummingbird.

If you think you have one of these, photograph it and report it. Rare records are genuinely useful, and local birders will want to know.

Who Is Where

Because range matters so much, the fastest route to an identification is often through the regional guide for where you live. Each lists the species you are actually likely to see, and when.

Other articles cover the Pacific Northwest, California, the Southwest, the Rocky Mountains, the Northeast and Midwest and the Southeast.

Many species are also only present for part of the year. Migration timing explains who passes through when.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many types of hummingbirds are there in North America?

About fifteen species breed or occur regularly in the United States and Canada. A dozen or so more have been recorded as rare visitors from Mexico and Central America.

What is the most common hummingbird in North America?

In the East, the Ruby-throated, the only species that breeds there. In the West, it depends on region: Anna’s on the Pacific coast, Black-chinned in much of the interior, and Broad-tailed in the Rockies.

What is the smallest hummingbird in North America?

The Calliope, about 3.1 to 3.5 inches long. It is the smallest bird native to North America north of Mexico.

What is the largest hummingbird in the United States?

The Blue-throated Mountain-gem, a borderland species of the Southwest. Rivoli’s Hummingbird is the second largest.

How do I identify a female hummingbird?

Start with your location, then look at the tail pattern and bill shape. Some females, especially Rufous and Allen’s, cannot reliably be separated in the field.

Why does a hummingbird’s throat look black sometimes?

Gorget colour is structural, produced by the way feathers reflect light. At a flat angle almost no colour reaches your eye, so a brilliant throat can look black.

Why do different guides give different Latin names?

Hummingbird classification has changed several times recently as genetic studies refined it. The Violet-crowned Hummingbird, for example, has been placed in three different genera. This guide uses the current American Ornithological Society names.

Conclusion

Identifying hummingbirds gets much easier once you stop trying to learn every species and start with the few that live near you. Learn your region’s short list, watch the gorget at the right angle, and look at the tail. For the tricky ones, accept that some birds keep their secret. That uncertainty is part of the pleasure, and it is shared by every birder who has ever watched a female Selasphorus and shrugged.