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Berylline Hummingbird

Amazilia beryllinaOrder: APODIFORMESFamily: Hummingbirds (Trochilidae)

Berylline Hummingbird Breeding Male Portrait
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General

Berylline Hummingbird: Medium-sized hummingbird with glittering green back, head, nape, throat, and breast. Wings and tail are rufous. Bill is black; lower mandible has red base. Undertail coverts are cinnamon-brown. Female is duller and with pale gray belly and undertail coverts.

Range and Habitat

Berylline Hummingbird: Endemic of southern and western Mexican foothills and highlands; occurs in southeastern Arizona as a stray, where it occasionally breeds. Inhabits oak and pine woodlands and edges, oak scrub and clearings, plantations; in U.S., forested canyons of desert mountains.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"sirr, kirr-I-rr, kirr-I-rr"

Interesting Facts

  • The Berylline Hummingbird is among the rarer of southeastern Arizona's hummingbird strays, and is much sought after by visiting birders.
  • They are most likely to be seen at hummingbird feeders in wooded mountain canyons, such as Madera Canyon or in the Huachuca or Chiricahua mountains.
  • Some sources list them as an accidental species, since its members apparently do not breed regularly in the US.
  • A group of hummingbirds has many collective nouns, including a “bouquet", "glittering", "hover", "shimmer", and "tune” of hummingbirds.


Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for Berylline Hummingbird
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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family
Species Amazilia beryllina
Length3.75 - 4.25 Inches
Wingspan5.25 Inches

Berylline Hummingbird

Berylline Hummingbird: Medium hummingbird, glittering green back, head, nape, throat, and breast. Wings and tail are rufous. Bill is black; lower mandible has red base. Undertail coverts are cinnamon-brown. Feeds on nectar and insects. Direct and hovering flight with rapid wing beats.

● Song: "sirr, kirr-I-rr, kirr-I-rr"

● Foraging & Feeding: Berylline Hummingbird: Feeds on nectar and insects; often dominates other feeding hummingbirds by diving at them and chasing them away from flowers.

● Breeding & nesting: Berylline Hummingbird: Two white eggs are laid in a nest made of plant fibers and spider webs, covered with lichens, and built in a tree or shrub, 17 to 25 feet above the ground, usually on a horizontal branch or vertical fork. Female incubates eggs for about 14 days.

● Similar species: Berylline Hummingbird: Buff-bellied Hummingbird has cinnamon-brown to buff belly, shows no rufous on wings, and has a black tip on lower mandible.

Flight Pattern

Direct and hovering flight with very rapid wing beats.
Berylline Hummingbird Breeding Male Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Berylline Hummingbird: Endemic of southern and western Mexican foothills and highlands; occurs in southeastern Arizona as a stray, where it occasionally breeds. Inhabits oak and pine woodlands and edges, oak scrub and clearings, plantations; in U.S., forested canyons of desert mountains.
BreedingSolitary nester
Population
MigrationNonmigratory
Weight0.2 Ounces