When I first hung hummingbird feeders in my yard, more than twenty-five years ago, the most common species I observed were Broad-tailed Hummingbirds followed by Anna’s Hummingbirds. However, in the past five years or so, the dominant visitors to the feeders are Broad-billed Hummingbirds. We still see Anna’s and Costa’s and occasionally a migrating Rufus but the Broadtails have disappeared.
Besides drinking nectar from hummingbird feeders, they will feed on nectar from flowers and also eat insects, captured in air or picked from plants.
Broad-billed Hummingbirds are mainly found in Mexico but their territory extends into southern Arizona and Southern Texas. Broadbills are easy to identify as they have a red bill tipped in black. Adult males are rich green with a vibrant blue throat (gorget). Females also have a trace of the red bill and are golden-green above, gray below, with a white line behind the eye. Immatures are similar to females (immature males often show the beginning of a blue-green gorget).
Broad-bills are small hummingbirds with a long, straight bill, thick at the base, and a tail with a notch in the center. Males have fuller tails than females, with rounded corners (females’ tails have squared corners).
Every year, we have Broad-bill nests in the yard. The female cleverly chooses a position under a covered area, usually on a hanging branch of Bougainville. The females weave small cups of bark strips, grasses, and leaves, lined with plant down, wrapped in spiderweb, and sometimes adorned (or camouflaged) on the outside with plant matter. Nests average about 1 inch tall, with interior cup about 0.75 inches across. When the young begin to grow, there is barely enough room for them in the nest.
They usually lay two tiny, white eggs. After courtship and mating, males have no further involvement. Females build the nest, incubate the eggs, and raise the young, which become independent after fledging.
To photograph hummingbirds in flight, you need to have a very fast shutter speed—one four thousandth of a second if you want to freeze the movement of the wings.
