Rufous Hummingbird

Selasphorus rufus

Order APODIFORMES - Family TROCHILIDAE

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

A common breeding bird of the Northwest, from northern California to Alaska, the Rufous Hummingbird breeds farther north than any other species of hummingbird in the world. Very aggressive at feeders, it is the western hummingbird most likely to turn up at feeders in the eastern United States.

Cool Facts

• The Rufous Hummingbird is a common visitor to hummingbird feeders. It is extremely territorial at all times of the year, and will aggressively attempt to drive away all other hummingbirds, including much larger species.

• The Rufous Hummingbird makes one of the longest migratory journeys of any bird in the world, as measured by body size. Its 3,900 mi (6,276 km) movement from Alaska to Mexico is equivalent to 784,500 body lengths. In comparison, the 11,185 mi (18,000 km) flight of the Arctic Tern is only 514,286 body lengths.

• The Rufous Hummingbird has an excellent memory for location, no doubt assisting it to find flowers from day to day, or even from year to year. Some birds have been seen returning from migration and investigating where a feeder was the previous year, even though the feeder was currently absent.

Description

• Size: 7-9 cm (3-4 in)
• Wingspan: 11 cm (4 in)
• Weight: 2-5 g (0.07-0.18 ounces)

• Tiny bird, small and compact hummingbird.
• Extensive rusty coloration in most plumages.
• Male with iridescent red throat and non-shiny reddish back.

• Tail projects slightly beyond wingtips when perched.
• Extensive rufous in tail.
• Bill straight and moderately long.

Sex Differences

Male with red throat; female throat white with a few red feathers. Male extensively orange on back and body, female with green back and head. Male's tail orange with pointed black tips, female's tail orange, green and black with rounded white tips.

Male

Gorget (throat) iridescent scarlet. Gorget with elongated feathers projecting slightly to the sides. Top of head dull metallic bronze or bronze-green. Sides of face, sides of chest, flanks, back, and rump plain cinnamon-rufous. Tail feathers pointed, and colored orange with dark tips. Outermost tail feather narrow. Wings dusky. Chest white. Belly and undertail coverts buffy. White spot behind black eye. Legs and feet dusky. Occasional individuals have green on back.

Female

Back metallic bronze-green, head slightly duller. Wings dusky. Outermost three pairs of tail feathers orange at bases, black in the middle, and white on the tips. Middle pair of tail feathers bronze-green, dusky at tips, with orange edges to green base. Next pair out with rufous base, then bronze-green, and black tips. Chin, throat, and chest dull white. Center of throat with variably sized patch of red feathers. Sides and flanks cinnamon-rufous. Undertail coverts pale cinnamon.

Immature

Immature male similar to adult female, but has more rusty coloration in the rump and lower back. Immature female similar to adult, but has less rufous in the tail, the feathers of upper parts and especially the rump have narrow buffy margins, and the throat is variably light and unspotted to spotted or streaked with dark bronze.

Similar Species

• Allen's Hummingbird is very similar, females and immature birds nearly indistinguishable in the field. Male Allen's has a green back and rump. Beware the rare Rufous Hummingbird male with a green back; if it has any completely rufous feathers, not rufous-edged, on the back, it is a Rufous Hummingbird. The outermost tail feather, difficult to see in the field, is narrower in all plumages of Allen's Hummingbird.
• Female Broad-tailed Hummingbird and Calliope Hummingbird have buffy sides and rufous in the tail. Calliope is pale buffy on the sides, has no rufous in the rump, has little rufous in the tail, and has a very short tail, about the same length as the wings when perched. Broad-tailed has paler buffy sides, has no rufous in the rump, has little rufous in the tail, and lacks the central red spot on the throat.

Sound

Does not sing. Calls buzzy; also sharp chips. Wings of adult male make a high, buzzy trill.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from southern Alaska southward to very northern California, south central Idaho, and western Montana.

Winter Range

Winters from southern California, through Mexico, and along northern Gulf Coast. Frequent vagrant to eastern states.

Habitat

• Breeds in forested and brushy habitats.
• Found in montane meadows and disturbed areas on migration.
• Winters in oak forests with scattered pines and junipers, and in brush and scrublands in Mexico.

Food

Flower nectar, small insects, and tree sap. Comes to hummingbird feeders.

Behavior

Foraging

Hovers at flowers and sap wells (made by sapsuckers), catches insects in flight and plucks them from leaves.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest an open cup placed in shrub or on small twig or branch of tree, especially conifers. Made of plant down, covered on outside with lichens, moss, or pieces of bark held on with spider web. Reports of colony of up to 20 nests within a few yards of each other.

Egg Description

White.

Clutch Size

2 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless and naked.

Conservation Status

Declining over most of range. Listed on the Audubon Watchlist.

Other Names

Colibrí roux (French)
Chupamirto dorado, Colibri colica (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Calder, W. A. 1993. Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus). In The Birds of North America, No. 53 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.