Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

The Rufous-tailed Hummingbird (Amazilia tzacatl) is a medium-sized hummingbird which breeds from northeast Mexico south to western Venezuela and western Ecuador.

This is a common to abundant bird of open country, river banks, coffee plantations and gardens up to 1850 m, and also occurs in scrub at woodland edges and clearings.

The adult Rufous-tailed Hummingbird is 10cm long and weighs 5.2 g. It has has mostly shiny green body plumage, apart from a greyish belly and rufous tail. The sexes are similar, but males have a mainly red bill, and females and young birds have a mainly black bill. Immatures also have rufous fringes to the head plumage. The call is a low chut, and the male’s song is a whistled tse we ts’ we or tse tse wip tseek tse.

The female Rufous-tailed Hummingbird is entirely responsible for nest building and incubation. She lays two white eggs in a compact cup nest constructed from plant-fibre and dead leaves 1-6 m high on a thin horizontal twig. Incubation takes 15-19 days, and fledging another 20-26.

The food of this species is nectar, taken from a variety of flowers, including Heliconias and bananas. Like other hummingbirds it also takes small insects as an essential source of protein. Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds are very aggressive, and defend flowers and scrubs in their feeding territories. They are dominant over most other hummingbirds.

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