Everything about The Rufous Hummingbird totally explained
The
Rufous Hummingbird (
Selasphorus rufus) is a small
hummingbird, about 8 cm long with a long, straight and very slender bill. The female is slightly larger than the male.
The adult male, shown in the photo, has a white breast, rufous face, upperparts, flanks and tail and an
iridescent orange-red throat patch (gorget). Some males have some green on back and/or crown. The female has green upperparts, white underparts, some iridescent orange
feathers in the center of the throat, and a dark tail with white tips and rufous base. Females and the rare green-backed males are extremely difficult to differentiate from
Allen's Hummingbird.
Their breeding habitat is open areas and forest edges in western
North America from southern
Alaska to
California. This bird nests further north than any other hummingbird. The female builds a nest in a protected location in a shrub or
conifer. The male aggressively defends feeding locations within his territory. The same male may mate with several females.
They are
migratory, many of them migrating through the
Rocky Mountains and nearby lowlands in July and August to take advantage of the
wildflower season there. They may stay in one spot for considerable time, in which case the migrants, like breeding birds, often aggressively take over and defend feeding locations. Most winter in wooded areas in the
Mexico state of
Guerrero, traveling over 2,000 miles by an overland route from its nearest summer home—a prodigious journey for a bird weighing only three or four grams.
This is the western hummingbird most likely to stray into eastern North America. There has been an increasing trend for them to migrate east to winter in the eastern
United States-(
Florida), rather than in
Mexico. (They do arrive at the
Turks and Caicos Islands.) This trend is the result of increased survival with the provision of artificial feeders in
gardens. In the past, individuals that migrated east in error would usually die, but now they often survive, and their tendency to migrate east is inherited by their offspring. Provided sufficient food and shelter is available, they're surprisingly hardy, able to tolerate temperatures down to at least -20°C.
These birds feed on nectar from flowers using a long extendable tongue or catch
insects on the wing.
Because of their small size, they're vulnerable to insect-eating birds and animals. These birds require frequent feeding while active during the day and become torpid at night to conserve energy.
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