Amazilia yucatanensis
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
South Texas's year-round resident.
The Rio Grande Valley's own hummingbird: a big, glittering-green, red-billed species that lives in deep South Texas all year and is found nowhere else in the US as a breeder. In fall, part of the population does something almost no other hummingbird does — it migrates northeast, up the Gulf Coast.
Range
Year-round in the lower Rio Grande Valley and coastal South Texas, north to about Corpus Christi. Post-breeding birds spread up the Texas coast to Louisiana, where a few now winter annually.
Migration timing
Present every month in South Texas. Valley feeder traffic peaks in winter, when Gulf-coast gardens from Brownsville to Houston — and increasingly Louisiana — host wandering birds from November through February.
How to identify one
- Emerald-green head and chest over a warm buff belly; rufous tail
- Bright red bill with a dark tip; sexes look similar (female slightly duller)
- Larger than a Ruby-throated, with a chattery, insistent call
At the feeder
In South Texas, keep feeders up all twelve months — Buff-bellied visit reliably and defend flowering shrubs like turk's cap. Along the upper Texas and Louisiana coasts, a winter feeder is the classic way to find one.
Feeding one right now? The recipe is always the same: 4 parts water, 1 part plain white sugar.
Nectar calculatorWhere to find the Buff-bellied Hummingbird
| State | Status | Feeders out by |
|---|---|---|
| Louisiana | Winter visitor | February 10 |
| Mississippi | Rare / occasional | February 15 |
| Texas | Year-round resident | February 15 |
FeederDates › Hummingbirds › Species › Buff-bellied Hummingbird