Bird name:

Broad-tailed Hummingbird

Selasphorus platycercus

Order

APODIFORMES

Family

Hummingbirds (Trochilidae)

Code 4

BTAH

Code 6

SELPLA

ITIS

178038

Breeding Location:

Mountains, Streams, upland

Breeding Type:

Solitary nester, Promiscuous

Breeding Population:

Common in range during summer

Egg Color:

White

Number of Eggs:

Incubation Days:

14 - 17

Egg Incubator:

Female

Nest Material:

Plant down and spider's silk.

Migration:

Migratory

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General

Broad-tailed Hummingbird: Medium-sized hummingbird with green upperparts and flanks, iridescent red throat, and gray underparts. Dark green tail may show some rufous. Female is larger with pale orange-brown underparts and lightly speckled throat. Dark green and rufous tail has white-tipped outer tail feathers.

Range and Habitat

Broad-tailed Hummingbird: Breeds in the mountains from eastern California and northern Wyoming through the Great Basin and Rocky Mountain states to southern Arizona and western Texas. Spends winters in Mexico. Preferred habitats include mountain meadows, pinyon-juniper woodlands, dry ponderosa pines, fir or mixed forests, and canyon vegetation.

Breeding and Nesting

Broad-tailed Hummingbird: Two white eggs are laid in a woven cup nest made of lichens and plant down. Incubation ranges from 14 to 17 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Broad-tailed Hummingbird: Feeds on floral nectar and small insects. Dominated by other hummingbirds on wintering grounds and often forced to forage on less preferred flowers.

Readily Eats

Sugar Water, Commercial instant nectars

Vocalization

Broad-tailed Hummingbird: Call is a sharp "chick."

Similar Species

Broad-tailed Hummingbird: Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird has deeper red throat and black mask. Female has white stripe behind eye, as opposed to brown stripe of female Rufous and Allen's hummingbirds.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Underparts

Belly, undertail coverts, chest, flanks, and foreneck.

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

Outer tail feathers

The tail feathers farthest from the center.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America