Greetings once again from the road. By the time you read this we should be out of California and somewhere in Arizona. Picked up a number of birds during our first “official” trip to the state lighting up the 6th new state this trip on my eBird profile. Have to admit, Linda’s bribe of birding opportunities for agreeing to go out to Washington for the CPE Agility Nationals has materialized far better than ever imagined. I am getting a bit homesick now and looking forward to getting back…but not until we hit a few more of my favorite birding spots in Arizona. Fingers crossed the heat doesn’t chase the birds away.
This month is coming to a close and surprisingly it was spent entirely on the road. Big thanks to Brad for keeping the post quota pressure from adding additional stress to the trip. For this 6th and final post of the month, I am going to feature a member of a bird family that doesn’t get a lot of attention on this site. This has absolutely nothing to do with our fondness for this group of birds – we love them actually – but it comes with a great deal of work both during the encounter, inevitable work in the digital darkroom and then depending on a number of conditions (gender/lighting/breeding/etc), the potentially painful ID process.
To get the ball rolling, this post is going to focus on a Hummingbird that is pretty easy to identify if you can find the male. Hit the jump to learn more about this distinctive speedster.
There are many images of Hummingbirds in my backlog, all waiting patiently to get their time to shine. Unfortunately, a lot of those are of females and many more were tinned without their gorsets highlighted. Bored and looking for an activity to suck up the extra time – grab yourself a random set of singular (so you can’t rely on size relationships) female hummingbirds and pour yourself a stiff one to cut through the agonizing reference book page flipping.
Get a male in a good lights, well that can be an entirely different story.
This happens to be one Hummer that is pretty easy to identify. The bright pink bill with the black ink well dipped tip is an easy option reducer. Wait, I should preface that for encounters within the US. I am not familiar with the multitude of Hummers around the world so overlaps with those species may occur.
So, within the US, pink bill with a black/dark tip quickly gets you down to three possible Hummingbird species (males), The Buff-Bellied, White-Eared and the Broad-Billed. Now we whittle away those options.
The first check is to see if there is a white stripe extending from the back of the eye to the back of the head. The bird namers took pity on us and actually named that variety appropriately – say it with me, the White-Eared. That strip is fairly thick, so don’t confuse it with the small white “dash” at the back of the eye on our featured specimen. Survey says, this is NOT a White-Eared.
That leaves two options that Cornell doesn’t feel is close enough to allow you to compare them on their website – hooey I say, they both have muti-colored bills! Note, I did check both ways to make sure they didn’t pull their classic one way comparison option – someone at Cornell really needs to explain to me how a similar comparison in one direction is different than the same comparison the opposite direction. Sorry, I digress. Fortunately, I am very familiar with the Buff-Bellied Hummingbird from our many trips to south Texas (link here).
“Buffy” prefers golden/rufous toned featherings along with the more traditional green colorings. In addition, they have … wait for it .. buff colored bellies. This is true for both the males and female Buff-Bellied Hummers. Note, that rufous coloring is also very visible all the way out on the tail feathers. Again, a shout out to the naming bodies. Another quick look at today’s specimen shows a healthy dose of blue and green hues down the belly. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the Broad-Billed Hummingbird!
This male Hummer species is an absolute stunner, especially when the light hits them just right to show off those iridescent feathers and bright blue gorset (throat coloring). The females..not so much with their duller green backs and grey underbellies. I am holding off on those shots for a much later post giving me time to make sure I have them distinguished from several other similarly colored female Hummers.
Okay, those familiar with Hummers are probably yelling “Regions” at the screen right now. You are absolutely correct, regions go a long way in helping to distinguish these three options. Buffy prefers to hang out in south Texas and then extend up the Gulf Coast through to the Florida Panhandle. White-Eared are really a limited number south Arizona visitor preferring to spend their days in South America. The Broad-Billed is a breeding resident at the southeastern corner of Arizona and the adjacent corner of New Mexico. Sorry folks, the rest of you will need to be content with the Anna’s, (far west) Black-Chinned (west) and Ruby’s (east) that are more numerous outside those regions.
For those looking to go after this beauty, these shots were taken at three spots in Arizona. The first of these was Patagonia State Park. This place has an absolutely incredible birding tail at the end of their campground. Warning – if you have the option, I recommend you do not visit this place on a weekend as the campgrounds fills up fast with large numbers of loud kids making it difficult to listen for birds. The second spot was Santa Rita Lodge in Madera Canyon. If you recall, this had the Arizona Woodpecker (link here) and the Hepatic Tanager (link here) and several other great birds I still need to process – go there, you will not be disappointed.
Lastly, the Paton Center for Hummingbirds. Like the other two places, this was a birding gem of a place. There are several feeders in the front providing great looks of a variety of Hummers. If you go there, be sure and take a stroll through their back trails as that added some really nice checks to the life list including the Plumbeous Vireo (link here).
All of those places should be full of Broad-Billeds during the breeding months. Make sure you take plenty of digital real estate as you will likely be hammering that shutter trying to get them in the frame – that feeder nectar is like Red Bulls to them.
While reading up on these Hummingbirds at Cornell’s site, I learned something quite interesting. They (and apparently many others in the Hummer family) do not take too kindly to “diurnal” or daylight Owls and will “mob” them. Mobbing being a term referring to the act of several birds ganging up and attacking another often predator bird. That must be incredibly annoying for Owls to be buzzed by ginormous Lite-Brite Mosquitoes. If you are curious, yes, you can play Owl sounds to artificially ignite this behavior. Ron and I have witnessed it being used on several bird walk outings. Still on the fence about that practice, but here to say it absolutely works to draw birds out of dense habitats.
As a tip, try to keep an eye on the tree branches and shrubs near the feeders and work to capture the Hummers as they stage before heading down to the feeders. I find the non-feeder shots the most pleasing if you can get them. Threw in a few of those feeder shots with some interesting compositions in this post (from the thousands I have), but for the most part the branch shots feel more natural.
Hope you enjoyed the first look at this colorful Hummingbird. Take care everyone and we will see you again next month with likely another Hummer we found during that March/April 2025 trip to southeastern Arizona.
Wildlife Intrigued 
Very distinctive colouring on that bill.I love the whole look of these birds. Such colour in one tiny package!
LikeLiked by 2 people
They can really turn on the color when they want to. The females are duller of course, but when the male comes and wants to show off for the ladies, I can’t stop pressing the shutter button ha. As an FYI, the latest featured Hummer comes in a slightly larger package. Take care and thanks for dropping in Anneli.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love to see them in any size and colour. They are amazing in so many ways.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Absolutely agree!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wonderful photos of these beautiful hummingbirds. The broad billed is so unique, with that (actually) broad bill!
We were in Colombia a few months ago, and I was flabbergasted at the wide variety (170!) of hummingbirds in the Sierra Nevada mountains there. I learned that half the species of hummingbirds globally can be found in Colombia 🇨🇴 !
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you BJ! I would love to get the opportunity to head to Columbia or Costa Rica for some birding although 170 sounds overwhelming ha. I’ve seen pictures of a few of them and they look incredible – many far more ornate in their feathering and colors. Take care and as always, appreciate you stopping by.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll bet you are ready to get back home. Beautiful hummers. I love the red beak.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This last week I have really been longing for home even though I have a lot of work waiting for me there. If we end up not having to go through St. Louis for some RV repairs we will probably just hammer it home from here – the home bed is calling as they say. Adding to it I am out of birds to hunt down now so it is basically travel, stop overnight and then repeat in the morning – not a lot of fun – and we are starting to hit the walls of humidity which sucks. Hope all is going well for you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can imagine you are itching to get home.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We officially made it home — got a run in last night to start getting conditioned to the humidity and then today spent the day trying to get caught up on the yardwork which is going to take some time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It must feel great to be home to face the never-ending nightmare of yardwork.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And now I have to do it in the Canada smoke!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It sucks to work and train in wildfire smoke.
LikeLike
Fun birds. Although I wouldn’t one to get between one of them and their intended flower target.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha, they are like rocket propelled lances – for some reason they always remind me of that Joust arcade game (Ostriches with jousting knights) when I was a kid. Got another one coming at you Jerry that is slightly larger. Appreciate you coming by Jerry, we are making our way through your Midwest heat now.
LikeLike
Appreciate the comparison notes. Now if I could only remember them in the field . . .
LikeLiked by 1 person
No worries, it take repetition for it to sink in anyway. Can’t remember how many years we have been going to Texas and Arizona now and it still takes a few sightings to remind me what I am looking at!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Outstanding post!
Terrific information on the little bundles of feathers which don’t know the words to any songs*. Okay, I can’t help but be jealous of your outstanding photographs, but I still love ’em!
Attempting a return to “our normal” but still getting interrupted by more than our share of medical appointments. Perhaps we’ll just head to the swamp and not come back. (Bonus – there is no phone reception way out there …..)
*(That’s why they — hum.) sorry
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Wally! Glad you were able to get something out of the post and you are too kind with your comments – I’ve seen your work and you have zero reason to be jealous! I can sympathize with the medical appoints. We have quite the series awaiting us upon our return – Linda’s knee is in really bad shape and I am looking at surgery for a destroyed knuckle. All things we need to push through to do the things we want to do. Definitely keep heading out into the field, but we all want you to come back to show us all your finds. It took me to the end to get your hum joke, just needed a rim shot ha. Take care Wally and appreciate you dropping in.
LikeLike
Fantastic gallery of broad-billed hummingbird photos, Brian. Your identification narrative and park info was helpful too. Capturing all these terrific poses in great light of this wily speedster could not have been easy. Much appreciated.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Jet! Glad you were able to get some take-aways from the post, that is always our goal in all our offerings. Definitely took some work to get some decent enough to show everyone – the main problem is they spend their time basically attacking each other – for such pretty creatures they sure have a selfish disposition ha. Thanks for coming by – oh, and we were able to spend a little time in your state hunting down some new birds in between the wedding events. Will hopefully get those finds processed before too long.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Boy, did this post recall our April visit to those locations! I think I can even identify the individual plastic feeders!. These are just wonderful photos, showing how the color envelopes their bodies, each feather so radiant. Glad you caught the structure of that bill, effective for both feeding and sparring!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I thought you would recognize this place Sam! You may be saddened to know that a bear basically destroyed the Santa Rita Lodge feeder area just a week or so before we got there. The curator has rebuilt some of the feeder stations – the long pole structure towards the back, but the large feeders on the single poles were gone. They are having a bear sighting at Madera almost daily now – we even saw one on the third day we were there. We had very productive days while we were there and and can’t wait to get those posted – this includes the Arizona WP, but maybe I shouldn’t mention that. Glad you like the shots as well – admittedly there were a lot of crap shots in that series that hit the digital waste can, but pretty happy with the ones I was able to save. Another set is on the way – did you make it to Paton Center for Hummingbirds when you were out there? If so, you should be very familiar with the latest featured feathered friend. Take care!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, we went to Patton TWICE in our crowded itinerary, because we were both excited by the viewing opportunities; we chose to omit the planned visit to the last Titan missle silo, outside Tucson!
LikeLiked by 1 person
We keep going by the Titan silo and each time we are on the go for some other destination – one of these days we will definitely stop in there. Not sure if they were working on this when you were there, but Paton now has a very nice visitor parking lot and super nice bathrooms added since we were there a year ago. No Plumbeous Vireo this year which was unfortunately, but managed to get that ticked off thanks to a nesting pair in Madera. They had to take their seed feeders down due to some bird disease they were seeing so even the standard Bridled Titmouse were gone. Did get the Varied Bunting there so still a really good visit.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, the new parking lot and bathrooms were open at Patton when we got there, very nice. In fact, we spotted a “Scramble” quail in the trees between the parking lot and the road!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I saw those exact same Quail..well, the same spot, I can’t tell those birds apart so no idea if they were locals or not. They just kept pouring over from the opposite side of the parking lot, dashing across the road, through the parking lot and then diving into the woodpile (vs in the trees) next to their back walking trails. By any chance did you go down the road to the conservancy area…it was closed on the day we were there and we noticed the $8 fee and calculated the return on species value and probably would not have gone anyway having already had good luck in the center itself and just walking that road for a ways back (which included the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo which I needed!).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Huh, no Reply link on for your comment below re the conservancy area… we drove down the road a little way, but the trees all seemed so close and tight, I dispaired of ever getting a shot, so we went elsewhere. That whole area has SO MUCH to offer, seems like you could spend several different years exploring and finding new territory.
LikeLike
Yeah, you’re right, it is an absolute stunner. Gorgeous colors!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I appreciate that this Hummer is awash in color from tip to tail – a lot of their species just burst with color from their gorset, but the rest of their body is fairly subdued. I suspect there is a bit of jealousy in the Hummingbird family hehehe. Thanks for the read SoyBend.
LikeLiked by 1 person