Conspicuous Violet-Crowned Hummingbirds

Worldwide there are said to be 356 species of hummingbirds of which 65, mas o menos, occur in Mexico. Like many people, be they birders or not, I find hummingbirds absolutely enchanting and fascinating but for whatever reasons they are the one family of birds that I, an avid “ almost-at-the-intermediate-stage” birder, have the most trouble in instantly recognizing. Perhaps it’s their diminutive size or their frenetic and rapid movements or that many of them have similar coloration and other similar, hence “mistakable” features. In Michoacan, Mexico where I live there are 21 species of hummingbirds many of which I have seen throughout the state, I think? Yet, there is one that I “get right” every time. It is pretty hard not to as they, violet-crowned hummingbirds, are so physically conspicuous.

You see (quite easily), violet crowned hummingbirds conspicuously distinguish themselves from all other North American hummingbirds as no other display the following combination of characteristics: snow white underparts including the throat (unless stained yellow by pollen); no gorget/no feathers around the throat; a distinctively bright blueish violet crown; a brownish-bronzy tail; and a straight and slender bright red bill with a black tip. Less conspicuously, these mid-large sized hummingbirds are approximately 11cm/4.3", weigh about 5.5 grams/.2 ounce, their backs are a dull iridescent greenish-brown, and they have brown eyes with no eye stripe. The females are very similar to the males but they are slightly smaller, their crowns are less brilliant, and their bills have more black- thus, I very rarely can tell them apart unless I get really “good looks” at them.

Violet-crowned hummingbirds occur only in the U.S. and in Mexico. In the U.S. they are relatively uncommon as they only can be somewhat predictably seen in the adjacent corners of Southeastern Arizona and Southwestern New Mexico; less predictably, sometimes some may stray to southernmost California and Southwestern Texas. However, they are quite common and abundant in Mexico as they range from that country’s Pacific Slope down through Jalisco and all the way down to Oaxaca. While the U.S. ones winter in Mexico and return to Arizona and New Mexico by the beginning of summer, all of the others are “partially migratory” Mexican “residents” who may wander during the year locally frequenting numerous and varied habitats in search of seasonally blooming shrubs, cactus, and trees.

In Mexico, the habitats that they seek out consist of arid to semi-arid scrub, canyons, partial clearings with hedges and scattered trees, thorn forests, riparian woodlands, and even parks and gardens. This species prefers feeding on nectar from flowers and flowering trees. Using their long extendable tongues, they also catch insects to feed upon. Like most other species of hummingbirds, they feed 5-8 times per daylight hour typically for 30-60 seconds per feeding.

Although the violet-crowned is the most common of all of the species of the 4 or 5 hummingbirds (or is it 6, 7, or even 8 as some are just not so unmistakable to my eyes, even with the use of binoculars) that I am fortunate to see around and about my town of Churintzio, they are relatively infrequent visitors to our home’s large maroon bougainvillea and two pomegranate trees. However, throughout the year, I see them in various locations as I do my “birding loop” starting from the small pond near the town’s cemetery as I then proceed to the “double lake” around a 45 minute walk away. On the trail near the pond, they are most frequently seen, feasting upon the blooming yellow-red prickly pear flowers on the nopal cactus which blooms twice a year; fiercely territorial, I have seen them successfully attack and shoo off not only other violet-crowned and other species of hummingbirds but also much larger birds like curve-billed thrashers and even highly territorial streak-backed orioles who had the audacity of intruding upon “their” flowering prickly pears. Yet, when the bright dangling orange flowers of the llamarada (in Spanish meaning “flame” or “blaze”) trees are in bloom by the “double lake” that is where I am most apt to either hear them zooming to and fro or to see them as they dine on the flowers’ nectar; once in a while I will also hear their repeated "squee, squee, squee" sound.

In the summer, I occasionally get a glimpse of another species of hummingbird, the migratory Allen’s with its “unmistakable” intricately patterned iridescent orange-red gorget that I can also instantly recognize. Well, to be truly honest with myself, perhaps not really as there is a fairly good possibility as to what I had seen was in fact a similarly appearing and equally “unmistakable” rufous hummingbird. Thus, in all certainty, it is only the conspicuous violet-crowned hummingbird that I can instantly recognize as it is truly unique.