About Broad-Tailed Hummingbirds

The broad-tailed hummingbird is a member of Trochilidae family of birds, which contains over 300 species. It is a small, agile bird that, with powerful rapid wing beats, is capable of aerial feats that most birds cannot match. The bird can fly forward, in reverse, straight up or down and side to side.

  1. Description

    • The broad-tailed hummingbird grows to 3 to 3 1/2 inches in length with a wingspan of just over 5 inches and weighs up to 1/10 of an ounce. Males have a dark metallic-green back and sides with a deep red throat, pale stomach and reddish tail. The females are larger and less colorful with a duller green back and sides and a white underside with green and copper speckled markings. Juveniles of both sexes resemble females.

    Habitat and Range

    • It is a migratory species, spending the summer in southwestern U.S. states such as New Mexico, Arizona and California. In the winter the birds fly south to Central America into countries such as Mexico and Guatemala. The birds tend to live in high altitude woodland areas with juniper and pine-oak tree types. Hummingbird feeders in gardens have attracted the species into more urban areas than they would normally inhabit.

    Diet

    • The long beak and tongue of the hummingbird help it reach its main high energy food, flower nectar. The broad-tailed hummingbird feeds mainly on plants such as Indian paintbrush, red columbine and scarlet mint. It also feeds on other flowers that most hummingbirds avoid such as glacier lilies and pussy willows. The birds feed heavily before nightfall in order to store energy to get through cold nights, often increasing their body mass by up to 34 percent before roosting. The birds also feed on small insects. The mainly liquid diet of this species means it needs efficient kidneys.

    Life Cycle

    • The broad-tailed hummingbird lives a solitary life, only meeting to mate. The birds breed between May and August with a single male often mating with several different females. The female builds a small nest in which she lays two tiny eggs. Incubation takes 16 to 19 days, on average, before the chicks hatch. The mother is the sole caregiver for the chicks and feeds them mostly small insects. The young leave the nest after around 25 days, just after the mother leaves to start the migration flight south.