From March to August, they can be found in their breeding range in the Northern Rocky Mountains, from British Columbia to Nevada and as far east as Wyoming. They are the smallest known long-distance migratory birds, traveling up to 9,000 km each year. Average basal metabolic rate 0.0685 cm3.O2/g/hrĬalliope hummingbirds ( Stellula calliope) are only found in western North America, ranging from Southern Canada to Mexico, depending on the season.Immature females look very similar to adult females. The femoral tufts on either side of their rump are white. The sides and flanks of female calliope hummingbirds are cinnamon or deep cinnamon buff. Their chests are a pale, grayish cinnamon buff or a dull white. Their chins and throats are a dull brownish white, usually streaked or flecked with a dusky or bronzy brownish color. The feathers near their ears are light brownish gray with a triangular space in front of their eyes. Their regimes are brownish slate or dusk, and are faintly glossed with purple. They have a metallic bronze-green coloration on their backs, but they do not have the unique tail shape of the males. ( Tacutu, et al., 2013 Calder and Calder, 1994 Clark, 2011 Lasiewski, 1963)įemale calliope hummingbirds are less vibrant. Immature males look very similar to adult males, except they do not have the iridescent neck feathers. Male calliope hummingbirds have metallic bronze-green feathers on their sides. Their under-tails are white with a cinnamon buff towards their hind ends. Their necks and chests are white or grayish-white and the rest of their underparts are more grayish. They have iridescent feathers on their neck, which form a star-burst of vibrant metallic purple across the pure white feathers of their chin and throat. Their regimes (the feathers of the wing used in flight) are dull brown, slate, or dusky with a purplish gloss. All of their rectrices are stiffer than those of most other hummingbirds, and are dull purplish-black or dusky, with a cinnamon-rufous edge and tipped with a dull brownish gray color. Their inner rectories, tail feathers used in flight, are slightly spade-shaped. Male calliope hummingbirds have a metallic bronze-green color on their backs, duller foreheads, and a unique tail shape. Female and immature bumblebee hummingbirds are very similar to calliope hummingbirds, but do not have the broad, rounded ends on their tail feathers. Calliopes stand out among other related hummingbirds, such as rufous hummingbirds, broad-tailed hummingbirds, or Allen's hummingbirds by having a shorter bill and shorter tail, very little rufous (red-brown) in their tail, and a patch of pale buff on their breast rather than on their sides and flanks. Their eyes are dark brown and their legs and feet are dusky. Their upper bill is a dull black and their lower bill is dusky near the end and brownish towards the bottom. Their wings go past their tail when they are folded back, although their wings are much shorter than those of closely related species, which makes them sound similar to a bumblebee when they fly.
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