Berylline Hummingbird

Amazilia beryllinaOrder: APODIFORMES Family: Hummingbirds (Trochilidae)

Codes: Common Name: BEHU Scientific Name: AMABER ITIS Taxonomic No.: 178065

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Overview

Berylline Hummingbird: Medium hummingbird, glittering green back, head, nape, throat, and breast. Wings and tail are rufous. Bill is black; lower mandible has red base. Undertail coverts are cinnamon-brown. Feeds on nectar and insects. Direct and hovering flight with rapid wing beats.

Range and Habitat

Berylline Hummingbird: Endemic of southern and western Mexican foothills and highlands; occurs in southeastern Arizona as a stray, where it occasionally breeds. Inhabits oak and pine woodlands and edges, oak scrub and clearings, plantations; in U.S., forested canyons of desert mountains.

Topo Map: Hummingbird-like Body

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"sirr, kirr-I-rr, kirr-I-rr"

Interesting Facts

The Berylline Hummingbird is among the rarer of southeastern Arizona's hummingbird strays, and is much sought after by visiting birders.

They are most likely to be seen at hummingbird feeders in wooded mountain canyons, such as Madera Canyon or in the Huachuca or Chiricahua mountains.

Some sources list them as an accidental species, since its members apparently do not breed regularly in the US.

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

Bird Term Glossary

Author

Gary Owen Dick

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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.

Berylline Hummingbird

● Song: "sirr, kirr-I-rr, kirr-I-rr"

● Foraging & Feeding: Berylline Hummingbird: Feeds on nectar and insects; often dominates other feeding hummingbirds by diving at them and chasing them away from flowers.

● Breeding & nesting: Berylline Hummingbird: Two white eggs are laid in a nest made of plant fibers and spider webs, covered with lichens, and built in a tree or shrub, 17 to 25 feet above the ground, usually on a horizontal branch or vertical fork. Female incubates eggs for about 14 days.

● Similar species: Berylline Hummingbird: Buff-bellied Hummingbird has cinnamon-brown to buff belly, shows no rufous on wings, and has a black tip on lower mandible.

Flight Pattern

Direct and hovering flight with very rapid wing beats.

Berylline Hummingbird Breeding Male Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: Berylline Hummingbird: Endemic of southern and western Mexican foothills and highlands; occurs in southeastern Arizona as a stray, where it occasionally breeds. Inhabits oak and pine woodlands and edges, oak scrub and clearings, plantations; in U.S., forested canyons of desert mountains.

^BreedingSolitary nester

^Population

^MigrationNonmigratory

^Weight0.2 Ounces

Hummingbird-like Body

Undertail coverts

Small feathers that cover the areas where the retrices (tail feathers) attach to the rump.

Breast

The upper front part of a bird.

Lower mandible

The lower part of the bill.

Nape

Also called the hindneck or collar, it is the back of the neck where the head joins the body.

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