Calliope Hummingbird

Overview

The Calliope Hummingbird is the smallest bird species that breeds in North America, nesting at higher elevations in the mountains of the western United States and Canada before migrating to Mexico for the winter. Despite its diminutive size, it is a pugnacious defender of feeding territories and can be seen chasing off much larger hummingbirds from favored flower patches.

Males are best known for a gorget unlike that of most other hummingbirds: instead of a solid glittering throat patch, the magenta feathers are elongated and streaked, radiating outward from the throat in a starburst pattern that flares during display flights.

Feather ID Notes

The male's throat feathers are the standout feature - individual magenta to wine-colored plumes that are narrow and streaked rather than fused into a solid gorget, giving a striped or "whiskered" look against the white throat base. Upperpart feathers are a clean iridescent green, and the tail is notably short, so at rest the folded wingtips often extend beyond the tail tip.

• Gorget feathers: magenta/wine, elongated and streak-like, not solid
• Crown and back feathers: iridescent green
• Underparts: whitish with light green or buffy wash on the flanks
• Tail: short and dark, wingtips project past it at rest This streaked gorget pattern separates males from Rufous and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds, which show solid-colored throat patches.

Plumage Details

Adult males show the diagnostic streaked magenta gorget along with green upperparts and pale underparts. Females and immatures lack the colorful throat, instead showing a plain whitish throat sometimes with fine dusky spotting, green upperparts, and buffy-washed flanks. There is no separate seasonal plumage; birds retain essentially the same look year-round, with a complete molt occurring on the wintering grounds after the breeding season.

Habitat & Range

Calliope Hummingbirds breed in mountain meadows, open coniferous forest, and streamside thickets at moderate to high elevations across the western United States and southwestern Canada. They are long-distance migrants, wintering primarily in the highlands of Mexico, and their breeding range shifts to lower valley habitats briefly during migration stopovers.

Behavior & Field Notes

Despite their small size, males are highly territorial, performing steep U-shaped display dives accompanied by a buzzy sound near the bottom of the arc. Diet consists of nectar from a variety of wildflowers and tiny insects taken in flight or gleaned from foliage. Nests are tiny cups of plant down and spider silk, often saddled on a slim conifer branch and sometimes reused or built atop old nests in following years. Calls include soft chips and a high-pitched twittering during chases.