Swallow Tail Humming Birds

Swallow-Tail Hummingbird

(Trochilus polytmus)

Photographed in the wild

Rockland’s Bird Sanctuary, Montego Bay Jamaica   Aug 2013
Ocho Rios, Jamaica   Nov 2015

The Doctor Bird is the common name for the Swallow-Tail Hummingbird, and the national bird of Jamaica. The feathers have a shimmering emerald green and black colour, a trait which is peculiar to this family of birds. The bird is able to fly backwards, thus causing the feathers to make a humming sound when it flies (giving this avian family its common name of the hummingbird).

The Doctor Bird is indigenous to Jamaica and is one of the most outstanding of the 320 species of humming birds. They are found mostly in closed forest wherever there are flowering plants. However, it can also be seen in gardens and parks. The bird's main source of nutrition is nectar from plants but it also eats spiders and insects. Doctor Birds tend to feed frequently during the day time and hibernate at night to conserve energy.

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Humming Bird (Rufus)

Rufus Hummingbird

(Selasphorusrufus)

Photographed at 

Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona  Apr 2010 

This is the feistiest hummingbird in North America. The brilliant orange male and the green-and-orange female Rufus Hummingbird are relentless attackers at flowers and feeders, going after (if not always defeating) even the large hummingbirds of the Southwest, which can be double their weight.

Rufus Hummingbirds are wide-ranging, and breed farther north than any other hummingbird. Look for them in spring in California, summer in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and fall in the Rocky Mountains as they make their annual clockwise circuit of the West and the longest migratory journeys of any bird in the world

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum’s Hummingbird Aviary is the best place I have found to view a vast variety of these birds.

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Purple throated Carib HummingBird

Purple throated Carib Hummingbird

(Eulampis jugularis) 

Photographed in the wild,

Island of St. Lucia   Apr 2012

The Purple-Throated Carib is a large, beautifully colored hummingbird found on most islands of the Lesser Antilles (also known as the Caribbean Islands). This species is endemic to this area, which means that it is not found outside the Lesser Antilles.

One common feature of hummingbirds is that they have iridescent colors, colors that arise through interplay between structural features of their feathers and the light. Depending on the direction of the light, the iridescent throat can appear brilliant purple, dull purple or black.

Male Purple-Throated Caribs are larger than females, but the bill of the female is 30% longer and twice as curved as the bill of the male.

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Ruby throated Carib HummingBird

Ruby-throat Hummingbird

(Archilochuscolubris)

Photographed in 

Muskoka, Ontario Canada  July 2008

Hummingbirds are the tiniest birds on the planet. They're the only birds that can fly backward as well as forward. When hovering, hummers can beat their wings from 22 to 72 times per second.

A female is pictured in the photo, and lacks the deep ruby-throat of the male which gives the species its name.

Primarily feeds on nectar from flowers and sugar water feeders. Also, they will consume a variety of small insects and spiders. The Ruby-throated Hummingbird does not show a strong preference for any particular color of feeder. Instead, it prefers specific feeder locations.

Hummingbird   VARRIATIONS

Jamaican Mango HummingBird

Jamaican Mango Hummingbird

 (Calypte costae)

Photographed in Jamaica

Rockland’s bird sanctuary      Aug 2013

Rockland is a open air sanctuary with no caged in birds

One of the 28 endemic birds of Jamaica, and are fairly common and widespread and only be found in that country. The Jamaican mango is the largest of the nation's hummingbirds. Its dark plumage may at first seem drab, but this hummer has spectacularly subtle beauty with a rainbow of iridescence in good light. A orange tail feather is always noticeable.

Jamaican mangos prefer less dense, lowland habitats that include plantations, forest edges, gardens and scrub areas, including more arid regions and backyards, though they are missing from the highest elevations of the Blue Mountains and John Crow Mountains. They do not strongly migrate but may drop to lower elevations in winter and populations can shift from the northern part of the country to the southern part seasonally, typically following the flowering season and the most abundant food sources.

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Costa Hummingbird

Costa Hummingbird

(Calypte costae)

Photographed in the wild and Aviary

Phoenix, Arizona Apr 2009

Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona  Apr 2010

A desert hummingbird, Costa's Hummingbird breeds in the Sonora and Mojave Deserts of California and Arizona. It departs the desert in the hottest days of summer, moving to chaparral, scrub, or woodland habitat.

Researchers have found that Costa's Hummingbird can enter a torpid state, with slowed heart rates and reduced body temperatures, under low ambient night-time temperatures. The hearts of torpid Costa's Hummingbirds beat about 50 times per minute, while those of non-torpid resting Costa's Hummingbirds beat 500 to 900 times per minute.

  

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