Broad-tailed Hummingbird

Selasphorus platycercus

Order APODIFORMES - Family TROCHILIDAE - Subfamily Trochilinae

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Reproduction
8. Conservation Status
9. Other Names

A hummingbird of subalpine meadows, the Broad-tailed Hummingbird ranges across the south-central Rockies in summer. It possesses a number of physiological and behavioral adaptations to survive cold nights, including the ability to enter torpor, slowing its heart rate and dropping its body temperature.

Cool Facts

• The Broad-tailed Hummingbird enters torpor, a slowed metabolic state, on cold nights. It maintains a body temperature of about 12.2°C (54° F) when ambient temperatures fall below 10°C (44° F).

• In some areas of Broad-tailed Hummingbird breeding habitat, cold air descends into valleys at night, with warmer areas upslope. This phenomenon is called a thermal inversion. The male Broad-tailed Hummingbird, which does not attend the nest, goes upslope at night to conserve heat, reducing the energy costs of thermoregulation by about 15 percent.

Description

• Size: 8-9 cm (3-4 in)
• Wingspan: 13 cm (5 in)
• Weight: 3-4 g (0.11-0.14 ounces)

Small bird; medium-sized hummingbird. Shiny green upperparts. Adult male has red throat. Adult female has white throat speckled with iridescent green or bronze.

Sex Differences

Male has red throat; female has white throat with variable amounts of green or bronze.

Immature

Resembles adult female, with more spotting on throat.

Similar Species

• Female Broad-tailed Hummingbird has plumage like Allen's and Rufous hummingbirds, but has a longer, broader tail. Adult male Ruby-throated Hummingbird has redder throat, with black, not white chin.

Sound

Chips and chitters. Displaying male makes buzzing trill with wings. No song used in courtship or territory defense.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming to east-central California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and west Texas. Also breeds in montane areas in Mexico and Guatemala.

Winter Range

Winters in highlands of Mexico, south to Guatemala.

Habitat

Open woodland, especially pinyon-juniper and pine-oak association, brush hillsides, montane scrub and thickets, in migration and winter also open situations in lowlands where flowering shrubs are present.

Reproduction

Clutch Size

Usually 2 eggs. Range: 1-3.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless.

Conservation Status

Vulnerable to window strikes, collisions with automobiles, and electrocution by livestock fences.

Other Names

Colibrie vibrador, Chupamirto cola ancha (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Calder, W. A. and L. L. Calder. 1992. Broad-tailed Hummingbird. In The Birds of North America, No. 16 (A. Poole, P. Stettenheim, and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, DC: The American Ornithologists? Union.