Rufous Hummingbird

About the Rufous Hummingbird

Ounce for ounce one of the most pugnacious animals in North America. A Rufous Hummingbird arrives at a feeder or a patch of penstemon and simply takes it, driving off hummingbirds half again its size and returning to a favorite perch between sorties like a fighter to a carrier.

The species makes one of the longest migrations of any bird for its size - Alaska to Mexico, close to four thousand miles - and it runs a great clockwise loop: north up the Pacific coast in spring, south down the Rocky Mountain wildflower corridor in late summer. That southbound leg is what brings them through the West Texas mountains from July into September, when Davis Mountains feeders can host squabbling handfuls.

Adult males burn copper-orange with an iridescent scarlet gorget; females and immatures - the birds Texas mostly sees - wear green backs with rufous flanks and tail bases, and separating them from Allen's and Broad-tailed is one of birding's honest difficulties.

The species has declined steeply in recent decades, enough for a Near Threatened listing - reason enough to keep the feeders full along its flyway.