Broad-tailed Hummingbird

Selasphorus platycercusOrder: APODIFORMES Family: Hummingbirds (Trochilidae)

Codes: Common Name: BTAH Scientific Name: SELPLA ITIS Taxonomic No.: 178038

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Overview

Broad-tailed Hummingbird: Medium hummingbird with green upperparts and flanks, iridescent red throat, and gray underparts. Dark green tail may show some rufous. Black bill is long and straight. Black legs, feet. Feeds on nectar, spiders, sap and insects. Direct and hovering flight with very rapid wing beats.

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.

Topo Map: Hummingbird-like Body

Listen to Call

Similar Sounding

Voice Text

"chip", "chick", "chitter chitter chitter"

Interesting Facts

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

One female holds the North American age record for hummingbirds, at twelve years old.

Accounts of this species mention that it nests in the same tree or bush year after year, a phenomenon known as philopatry-faithfulness to the previous home area. It will return to the same branch and even build a new nest atop the old one.

A group of hummingbirds has many collective nouns, including a “bouquet", "glittering", "hover", "shimmer", and "tune” of hummingbirds.

Bird Term Glossary

Author

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Yury Lisyak

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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.

Broad-tailed Hummingbird

● Song: "chip", "chick", "chitter chitter chitter"

● Foraging & 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.

● Breeding & 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.

● 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.

Flight Pattern

Hovers when feeding., Swift, dashing direct flight.

Broad-tailed Hummingbird Body Illustration

● Range & 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.

^BreedingSolitary nester, Promiscuous

^PopulationCommon in range during summer

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.1 Ounces

Hummingbird-like Body

Underparts

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

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

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