Not Violent, Violet

Been a few, my fault, upmost apologies. Free time has been at a premium as of late since we started are final drive east for home. In fact, by the time you are reading this we will either be officially back or minimally less than a state away. I’ll likely provide a more thorough recap of our foray through the west, but some key summary (at at least very close) statistics:

In total – 13 states visited
6 new states lit up on my eBird account
140+1 new birds for the year
54 new lifers
Current annual bird count – 440+4 (a new record)
Hit #125 on top US birder list for 2026
Over 6500 miles driven

This has been quite a trip, the longest we have been away from home and have to admit, looking forward to a good night’s sleep in a large, stationary bedroom. Then up bright and early to get my ass back into hard training. Although I rucked several mountains, wedged in a few 10 miles runs, did my cardio/core routine 6/7 days a week and mostly kept myself to 2 if not 1 meal a day, the body took the holiday to heart and needs a quick reminder it has a big race later in the year. Oh, and the Halloween Haunted Trail work is waaaay behind schedule.

…but you are here for birds and we have another Arizona specialty for you to kick off this new month.

Pretty eh!?!, hit the jump to learn more about this beautiful creature.

For those of us that spend most of our year watching the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird and the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird and the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird (get the picture ha), the chance to enjoy other members of the Trochilidae family is an absolute treat.

If you recall, in my last post the featured feathered friend was also a southeastern AZ native – the Broad-Billed Hummingbird (link here). I did fib just a little bit in that post as I noted that a pink bill with a black tip would get you narrowed down to three Hummingbirds in the US. Not entirely true as I left off another option as it was in the queue and didn”t want to spoil the surprise.

That other option and the Hummer you are currently looking at is the Violent-Crowned Hummingbird. Dammit, did it again. There is no valid explanation for my inability to get this colorful bird’s name right. It isn’t full of vowels and weirdly placed vowels (looking at you Pyrrhuloxia link here), not a foreign translation of its call (listening to you Pauraque link here), just two common words hyphened in the traditional bird naming manner – Violet and Crowned.

Yet every single time I call out this Hummingbird it comes out as Viole’N’t-Crowned. My wife laughs, people around me get very uneasy. It all started the first time we encountered this species of Hummer back in March of last year – this series of shots come to you from that visit to the Paton Hummingbird Center in Patagonia, AZ.

You would think after a year I would have learned to say it right, but no, on our second trip to Paton’s a few weeks ago, the words Violent-Crowned Hummingbird burst through my lips as soon as I spotted one at their feeders. Linda laughed, volunteer there got very uneasy. In my defense, Hummingbirds are fairly violent creatures and, now that I think about it, may be at the heart of the verbal issue. Watching the multitude of Hummingbirds at the Paton Center feeder area is a great demonstration of aggression both inter and intra-species.

Suspect you have also witnessed this behavior if you put out your own Hummingbird feeder. The first Hummer visitor will claim ownership of the feeder (or from what I can tell, any feeder in the vicinity). Any future “invaders” are met with highly lethal sorties. In the case of Patons, there are so many feeders and Hummingbirds that it looks like mass warfare – everyone for themselves. This also means you have very little time to get a shot before one is nearly skewered by a rocket-powered lance.

Don’t be fooled by the shots on display here – there were hundreds of shots of empty feeders. At some point you give up trying to selectively get shots that show off their brilliant coloring and instead just get something in the tin and hope one of them shows off their beautiful shimmers. The first few shots in this series are the best ones that captured this Hummer’s namesake crown. If it shifts just a little or the light changes ever so slightly, that coloring is instantly replaced with a much duller version. The shot above shows a little of that crown coloring where it is practically gone in the shot below.

Now back to the ID “fib”. In all honesty, you are really not going to confuse this with the other three options mentioned in that previous post and why I didn’t feel too bad about leaving it off. Male and female Violet-Crowned (got it right!) look the same. Male Broad-Billeds have color throughout the body and the females/immatures have a grey body/throat. The white stripe is still unique to the back of the eye on White-Eared and lastly, the Buff-Bellied has … surprise..buffy bellies, leaving the very white throat/belly on the Violet-Crowned being a unique distinguisher beyond the violet crown (if you are at an angle to see it).

There is also another helpful referential distinction that might come in handy…

The Violet-Crowned appears much larger/beefier than the other Hummingbirds. White-Eared are 3.5 to 3.9 inches, Buff-Bellied are 3.9 to 4.3 inches and Broad-Billed is 3 to 4 inches in length. The Violet Crowned sit at the high end of those ranges at 4.3 inches and “thicker”. Of course that doesn’t help you much unless you have the two together in the field…ask and you shall receive ha…

I suspect the Violet-Crowns are often mocking the Broad-Billeds (above) – pointing to their their bills while chirping out “Broad bill my ass”.

As far as the range goes, the Violet-Crowned have a very similar US presence as the Broad-Billed – translated, very little and isolated to the southeast AZ and northwest NM areas. Paton has both of them and why it is now a required stop whenever we are in the area (along with all the other great birds they have there like the previously featured Plumbeous Vireo (link here) and two lifers discovered on this trip – future post foreshadowing). Not much else I can really bring you regarding this particular Hummer. Like many of their kin, it is stunning in the right light and in my opinion that crisp white gives it a very elegant look.

Hope you enjoyed this new addition to my life list. If everyone behaves I just might have another lifer Hummer from our southeastern Arizona trip to bring you in an upcoming post…but I better not hear about any of you goofing off hehehe.

Before I go, I just want to extend our America 250th celebration wishes. I was going to put out a message on that day, but we were fortunate to be able to visit friends while traveling through Arizona that day and ran out of time after getting caught up and watching their local fireworks display. Our parents would never let us forget how fortunate we are to grow up in the best country in the world, the land of opportunity, earned/protected by the brave members of the military (including our very own fathers) and all law enforcement agencies. Hoping those in this country were able to celebrate this opportunity in their own special way.

Until next time, take care.