Meet the Hummingbirds

Learn more about the 14 most common hummingbird species in North America.

By Stephen Kress and Elissa Wolfson

Lucifer Hummingbird
Calothorax lucifer
These hummingbirds commonly reside in central Mexico’s Chihuahuan Desert, with a few reaching Texas’s Big Bend area. Males have a unique habit of performing courtship displays, including steep dives, in front of females already on the nest.
Length: 3.50 inches
Wingspan: 4 inches
Migration: northern Mexico and southwestern United States; winters in south-central Mexican plateaus
Habitat: arid hillsides, desert canyons, occasionally dry grasslands with scattered oaks
Field marks: This relatively small, large-headed bird has a bronzy-green back, buffy sides, a pale streak behind the eyes and a long, distinctively down-curved bill. Males have long, bright magenta throat patches and long, forked tails, typically kept folded.
Voice: The call is a sharp, dry, twittering “chip.”
Nesting: The compact plant fiber cup is built on cholla, ocotillo or agave stalk. The female lays two white eggs, then incubates and feeds chicks. She might begin incubating a second clutch while still feeding the first.
Feeding: frequents flowering agave, ocotillo, penstemon and desert honeysuckle

This article originally appeared in Hummingbirds, part of BowTie Inc.'s Popular Birding Series.

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