Broad-tailed Hummingbird

The male's wingtips produce a loud, metallic cricket-trill in flight — in the Colorado Rockies you hear a Broad-tailed long before you see it. A high-elevation specialist, it breeds up to 10,500 feet and survives cold mountain nights by dropping into torpor, slowing its heartbeat from 500 to fewer than 50 beats per minute.

Range

Breeds through the southern and central Rockies — Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona highlands, into Idaho and Nevada — and south through Mexico's highlands, where northern breeders winter.

Migration timing

Arrives along Colorado's Front Range and the Southwest's high country from mid-April. Departs through September after the wildflower peak; a few linger at Gulf Coast feeders in winter.

How to identify one

• Male: rose-magenta gorget, green crown, and that unmistakable wing trill
• Female: green above with buffy flanks and rufous-edged tail — told from female Rufous with difficulty
• Larger and longer-tailed than Rufous or Calliope

At the feeder

Mountain-cabin gold: at elevation, a feeder may be busiest at dawn after cold nights, when birds emerge from torpor needing sugar fast. Never use red dye — and at altitude, refresh nectar every couple of days in summer sun.

Where to find the Broad-tailed Hummingbird

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