In late July, 2025, I was surprised to see a humming-bird species that I had never seen before in southern California. It was Archilochus alexandri, the "black-chinned humming bird" that is native to western North America, from Alaska to South America. This bird is uncommon, however, in Canada. Archilochus migrates twice a year between western USA, Mexico, and Central America. Some individuals are apparently found in the Gulf Coast region.
The males of the Archilochus alexandri in my front-yard garden have a purple and black throat, whereas the females have whitish throats. They are all small slender birds, about the size of a sparrow. They live in woodland, brushy habitats. Individuals usually live three to five years, but some can be as old as 12 years. They feed on nectar from flowers, sugar water from feeders, and also on small insects.
Figure 1. Side-view of a hovering female Archilochus alexandri.
Figure 2. Another side-view of the same specimen of A. alexandri.
Archilochus belongs to the family Trochilidae, and the fossil record of this family is early Oligocene (approximately 34 to 28 million years ago).
Apparently, humming birds originated in South America. Today, there are about 325 species of humming birds that live in the Western Hemisphere. Ecuador has the highest diversity of humming birds. The smallest known humming bird is only 2.25 inches long and looks like a big bee. It lives in Cuba.
Interestingly, there are no humming birds living in Africa, Asia, nor Europe.
Note: I was lucky to be able to photograph this rare (to me) humming bird; even then I had to be at considerable distance. They are VERY nervous birds but not as much as the more common but extremely cautious “Anna’s hummingbird” [Calypte anna] that I frequently see in my garden but never can get close enough for a decent photograph.
References
Wikipedia, 2025
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