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Blue-throated Hummingbird
Scientific name: Lampornis clemenciae
Length: 5 inches (13 cm)
Identification: Metallic-green from above and gray from below, the blue-throated
hummingbird has a white stripe behind the eye -- or, some would describe it as a
white stripe above and another below the eye. The male only has the blue throat (gorget)
-- which may look black in poor light -- and white corners to its blue-black tail
feathers. The female has white tips to its outer tail feathers and is similar in
appearance to the female magnificent hummingbird, which has gray tips to its tail
feathers.
Habitat and range: Observed along the border between the United States and
Mexico, it nests usually near or over water in a mountain canyon.
FYI: The blue-throated hummingbird, like all hummingbirds, must supplement
its protein diet of small insects with continual feeding on nectar and pollen. Not
only can the hummingbird fly forwards or backwards, it can adjust itself upwards
or downwards, shift side to side, pivot on a stationary axis, hover in midair, but
it can also turn a somersault in mid-flight and fly upside-down. Source: Alexander
F. Skutch, The Life of the Hummingbird (New York: Vineyard Books, Inc., 1973), pp.
26-27. The scent or perfume of the flower has been demonstrated by experiments
with hummingbirds to have little to do with their detection of food. Source: "Hummingbird,"
The Audubon Nature Encyclopedia, 1965, Vol. 5, p. 895.
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