The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the most widespread hummingbird in the United States and Canada. If you live east of the Mississippi, you’ve probably seen one … or many.

Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird

An adult male Ruby-throated Hummingbird has a black head, a red throat (gorget), and a bright green back. This male hummingbird shows the reddish color in his gorget feathers. It was an overcast and rainy day when this photo was taken. There was not enough light to really show off his red gorget.

Here’s the ruby red

This hummingbird’s gorget caught the sunlight as he flew toward me.  It is easiest to see the color when the light is behind you but shining directly onto the hummingbird.

Notice the v-notch or forked tail. Adult male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have the v-notch tail and pointy tail feathers.

Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird in different light

This is a different adult male Ruby-throated Hummingbird. His gorget looks dark, almost black. The sun was out, but the angle was not right for the feathers to appear red.

Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird

A female Ruby-throated Hummingbird has a plain whitish throat, perhaps with some light markings, and a bright green back. It can be tough to tell an adult female from a very young bird after nesting season. The immature Ruby-throateds can look like this. I would be more certain in calling this a female if the photo had been taken in the spring before young hummingbirds were about.

Young male Ruby-throated Hummingbird

A young male Ruby-throated can have speckling or colored feathers in the throat area. The streaking on this Ruby’s throat, and the stray red feather, show that this is a young male.

Young Ruby-throats in flight

Guess: young male.  Reason: spotted throat.

Guess: none. Reason: light throat, rounded white tail tips made me think it was a young female. But I have another, less clear, photo of the same (maybe) hummingbird shows what might be a single red feather in center of throat.

Name and Nicknames

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have many dedicated fans. And so, they have many nicknames: ruby throated, ruby throats, rubythroat, ruby, rubies, hummers, hummer birds. Here’s their scientific name: Archilochus colubris.

Ruby-throated Hummers

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds migrate long, long distances between where they nest and where they spend the winter. The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds fly each spring from Mexico and Central America up into Texas, Florida, and rest of the Gulf Coast. They then spread up and through the eastern U.S. and Canada to nest. During their return migration in the fall, they concentrate in large numbers along the Gulf Coast.

We know so much about Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in part due to a few dedicated groups and many interested citizens. Great sources of information on Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are Operation RubyThroat, the HummerBird Study Group, and Hummingbirds.net.

Neighborhood birds

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds like forest edges, parks, and gardens. Just like we do. The picture above was taken in a public park in Rockport, Texas during the 2014 HummerBird Festival.

If you live in the east, we hope you get some Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at your park, school, or home next season.

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Here is the tiny Calliope Hummingbird.

I hoped to see a Calliope Hummingbird all spring and summer but was never in the right area (western mountain areas) at the right time. Finally, they were at Sipe during the fall hummingbird migration, mixed in with the Rufous and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds.

The Calliope Hummingbird is the smallest hummingbird of the United States and Canada.  It is also the smallest bird that nests in the United States. It is very small, between 2.75 and 3.25 inches (7.5 – 8 cm) long, including the beak.  More facts about the Calliope are here.

Male Calliope Hummingbird

The male Calliope Hummingbirds have spiky dark red gorget feathers. I only saw a few of them, but they were fairly easy to spot in the middle of the other migrating hummingbirds. I looked for their purplish red gorget, small size, and short tail (tail is about as short as wing tips when the hummingbird is perched).  They slipped in and out of the crowds at the feeders, not calling attention to themselves.

Female Calliope Hummingbird

The female Calliope Hummingbirds were more tricky to identify. Their pale coloring is similar to other female and immature hummingbirds. I looked for a short tail as well as small size. The picture above is a female Calliope, or perhaps an immature Calliope.

Calliope Hummingbirds in the swarm

The Calliope Hummingbirds were quiet and discreet in this setting. They would feed quietly while other hummingbirds were fighting and chasing. Sometimes the Calliopes would get flushed off the feeders in the general chaos, but the other hummers mostly left them alone. The male Calliopes did notice each other, but I did not see any bother to give chase.

They were very cute.

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The Rufous Hummingbird is a dashing little hummingbird, bright orange and rust colored.

Rufous Hummingbird – beautiful, small but …

Many people really like the Rufous. Its small size, bright color, and speed are appealing. The Rufous Hummingbird was even named 2014 Bird of the Year by the American Birding Association.

Then there’s the Rufous attitude. The Rufous Hummingbird is known for being “aggressive”. Maybe aggressive seems unlikely, given its small size …

but once you have seen a male Rufous Hummingbird … or males … around a feeder, you will understand their reputation.

Video of a Rufous Hummingbird guarding a very large feeder

This male Rufous Hummingbird spent much more time defending that large feeder than drinking from it. This video was recorded at the Cave Creek Research Station near Portal, Arizona in late July 2013.

Competition

At times, a male Rufous Hummingbird will focus on other Rufous males as they approach a feeder. The males may confront and chase each other rather than feed, while the rest of the hummingbirds look on or continue to drink.

Conflict at the feeders is not constant, however. In this Hummingbird Migration post, you can see that even Rufous males can settle down and tolerate other hummingbirds for a short time.

Female Rufous Hummingbird

Here is a female Rufous Hummingbird. The females and immature hummingbirds often look alike, so it can be tough to tell them apart. During fall migration, the young hummingbirds are mixed in with the females. It is also challenging to tell them apart from female or immature Broad-tailed Hummingbirds.

Young male Rufous Hummingbird

Here is an immature Rufous Hummingbird. This bird had a few scattered gorget feathers coming in, which led to identifying him as a young male. Immature males may also have heavy striping down the throat area, as this hummingbird does.

To identify the female and the young male above, I relied upon multiple photos of each hummingbird, a hummingbird bander’s tip on looking for some white around the orange gorget spot on females (thank you), the Beginner’s Guide to Hummingbirds*, and A Field Guide to Hummingbirds of North America**.

More about Rufous Hummingbirds

Rufous Hummingbird migrate hundreds … or thousands … of miles from their wintering grounds in Mexico (or southern United States) to their summer territories in the United States and Canada.  The males lead the way, arriving in the Pacific Northwest as early as February. Some continue on to Alaska and northwestern Canada. The females follow afterward.

Check out the Spring 2016 Rufous migration map by the Journey North, an educational organization that tracks wildlife movement using citizen observations.

The males leave as early as June or July on their southward migration to their wintering grounds. The females and young follow a little later in the summer.

We have learned a lot about Rufous Hummingbirds from hummingbird banders and citizens, as well as biologists. Their efforts have proven that a population of Rufous overwinters in the southeastern United States, rather traveling to Mexico. Our thanks go out to them.

Name: Selasphorus rufus

Size: 3.5 to 4 inches (9 to 10 cm)

Longest known migration: 3,530 miles

An Aside – Rufous Hummingbird look-alike

The Rufous looks almost identical to the Allen’s Hummingbird, a slightly smaller hummingbird of coastal California and Oregon. How do you tell them apart? We had relied primarily on geographical location (southern and coastal California for Allen’s) and on back color for the males (red for Rufous).

While useful, apparently these shortcuts are not definitive. Telling a Rufous from an Allen’s lies in the shape of the tail feathers. The picture of a male Rufous Hummingbird below shows his red back and a flared tail. That notched tail feather, second from the bottom, is distinctive. That’s a Rufous tail feather.

If you are interested in telling Rufous and Allen’s Hummingbirds apart, check out this article by Sheri Williamson for a clear description of color and tail feather shapes and links to photos.

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Sources for identifying the birds: *Beginner’s Guide to Hummingbirds by Donald and Lillian Stokes and **A Field Guide to Hummingbirds of North America by Sheri Williamson

Sources for “More about Rufous Hummingbirds”: **A Field Guide to Hummingbirds of North America by Sheri Williamson