Rufous hummingbird
A copper-orange hummingbird that flies farther, relative to its size, than almost any other bird on Earth, from Mexico to Alaska and back every year.
Rufous hummingbird at a glance
Selasphorus rufus ROO-fus HUM-ing-bird; Selasphorus rufus is sel-AS-for-us ROO-fus
- Type
- Bird · hummingbird
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Size
- About as long as your thumb, 3 to 3.5 inches (7 to 9 cm), and weighing about as much as a penny, 0.1 to 0.2 ounces (3 to 4 grams).
- Lifespan
- Most live 3 to 5 years in the wild; the oldest banded bird on record reached over 8 years.
- Conservation
- Near threatened
Eats flower nectar, sugar-water from feeders, small flying insects, spiders caught off webs
It hovers in front of a tubular flower and laps up nectar with a long tongue, and also snatches gnats and other small insects out of the air for protein.
Should you worry?
None. A rufous hummingbird is tiny and no threat to a person, though it will dive-bomb and scold anything, including a much bigger bird or a kid's hand, that gets near its feeder or flower patch. Enjoy the show from a step back.
Hang a hummingbird feeder at an Olympic campsite in April, and the first bird to claim it is usually a male rufous hummingbird. Throat and back the color of a new penny, he perches on the wire a few feet off, watching the sugar water before he ever takes a sip. He’s often the earliest hummingbird back from Mexico each spring, arriving right as the season’s first wildflowers start to open.
Being early costs something. A rufous hummingbird weighs about as much as the penny its color mimics. Every year it still flies from central Mexico to south-central Alaska and back, something like 3,900 miles one-way, wings beating 50 times a second, heart running over 1,200 beats a minute in flight. Measured against a body about as long as your thumb, that round trip covers more body lengths than almost any other bird manages, including much larger travelers like the Arctic tern on a route that runs thousands of miles longer in a straight count. The copper blur crossing a meadow in two seconds is partway through the longest migration, pound for pound, of almost any bird alive.
All that fuel has to come from somewhere close by, which is why a male stakes out one patch of flowers or one feeder and defends it against anything that gets near: another hummingbird, a chickadee, once in a while a hiker’s hand reaching for the feeder itself. A metabolism running that hot can’t just power down for a full night’s sleep either, so at dusk it drops into torpor instead, letting its heart rate and body temperature fall until sunrise so it doesn’t burn through its last reserves before the flowers open again. Check a feeder late enough in the evening and you can catch the switch: a hummingbird gone rigid and unresponsive on the perch, then gone from the perch entirely by the time the coffee’s on the next morning.
Did you know?
- A rufous hummingbird's heart can beat over 1,200 times a minute in flight, faster than any other bird's.
- It nests farther north than any other hummingbird species, reaching south-central Alaska.
- Its wings beat around 50 times a second, fast enough to blur into the hum that gives hummingbirds their name.
Common questions
How far do rufous hummingbirds migrate?
About 3,900 miles one-way between Mexico and Alaska. For a bird just 3 inches long, that's one of the longest migrations of any bird on Earth relative to body size.
Why do rufous hummingbirds chase other birds away from feeders?
A male claims a patch of flowers or a feeder as his own food supply and will dive-bomb anything, even much bigger birds, that tries to feed there too.
What do rufous hummingbirds eat?
Mostly flower nectar, plus small insects and spiders for protein. At a campsite they'll also drink sugar water from a feeder.
When would you see a rufous hummingbird at a Pacific Northwest park?
Spring through late summer. They're some of the earliest migrants to arrive in March and head south again by August.