They breed at elevations up to 10,500 feet, where nighttime temperatures regularly plunge below freezing. The metallic wing-trill of the male Broad-tailed Hummingbird is a characteristic sound of summer in the mountain west. The broad-tailed hummingbird has marking like the ruby-throated hummingbird, and is another hummer easily confused with its cousin.

Most of the other hummingbird photos below are from Arizona, with a few from California and Oregon. The Broad-tailed hummingbird and the Rufous Hummingbird are the most common of the aforementioned species to be seen in Colorado.

A jewel of high mountain meadows, male Broad-tailed Hummingbirds fill the summer air with loud, metallic trills as they fly. Broad-tailed hummingbirds have a longer, more rounded tail with rufous showing on the edge. To make it through a cold night, they slow their heart rate and drop their body temperature, entering a state of torpor. Range: While vagrant birds can occur in both species, the overall range is an easy identity clue. The female Broad-tailed can be distinguished from the female Rufous Hummingbirds and Allen's Hummingbirds by her longer and broader tail, the green central tail feathers and the outer tail feathers which are rust-colored at base, black in middle, and white on the outer tips. A primary differentiator is their range.

In Colorado there are 41 different state parks and there are 4 different national parks. Click on the images or species name for more photos of that species. Photos comparing this bird species with similar or … Both Broad-tailed and Rufous hummingbirds employed more energetically expensive behaviors when defending high quality sites, with longer chases more often supplemented with chip calls and …

The birds are seen easily enough, however, at masses of flowers in the high meadows, where they hover and dart around the blossoms, often fighting and chasing each other away from choice patches. Similar looking birds to Anna's Hummingbird: Broad-tailed Hummingbird Adult male, Broad-tailed Hummingbird Female/immature, Black-chinned Hummingbird Adult male, Black-chinned Hummingbird Female/immature, Costa's Hummingbird Adult male, Costa's Hummingbird Female, Rufous Hummingbird Female/immature. The climate in Colorado varies around the state but it mainly has a continental climate. Migrating Rufous Hummingbirds displaced Broad-tailed Hummingbirds from territories they had defended during the breeding season; Broad-tailed Hummingbirds then defended only lower quality sites. The broad-tail is in the west, while the ruby-throated is in the east. The male has red-rose throat, with white underparts, and green sides. We only get one species of hummingbird in eastern South Dakota, Ruby-throated. This sound is often heard as a flying bird zings past unseen. As soon as the sun comes up, displaying males show off …

Ruby-throated Hummingbird: Calliope Hummingbird: Broad-tailed Hummingbird: Rufous Hummingbird: Anna's Hummingbird: Costa's …