Male White-eared Hummingbird (Seabamirum on Flickr)
Key Facts
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NAME
- White-eared Hummingbird Basilinna leucotis (syn. Hylocharis leucotis)
DESCRIPTION
- Overall: A medium-small hummingbird, relatively chunky with round head, broad-based red and black bill and fairly broad, dark tail.
- Adult Males: Stunning purple on throat and crown and green on breast, although looks black at many angles. Prominent, wide, bright white stripe behind eye contrasting with black cheek. Bright red bill with black tip. Underparts mottled green. Upperparts green with some bronze fringing on rump. Dark tail with green central uppertail feathers.
- Immature Males: Similar to females with varying amount of color on throat.
- Females: Duller, but still very prominent black and white face pattern, rows of green spots on throat and breast sides, mottled green underparts, less red at the base of the bill
SIZE
- Length: 3.5 – 4 inches (9 – 10 cm)
- Bill Length: 0.6 – 0.7 inches (15 – 18.5 mm)
- Wingspan: 5 – 6 inches (12.5 – 15 cm)
- Weight: 0.1 – 0.15 oz (3 – 4 grams)
RANGE IN USA
- Breeding: rare but usually annual breeder in very small numbers in the mountains of Southeast Arizona
- Migration: Almost never seen on migration
- Wintering: No winter records
- Vagrants: casually recorded along USA/Mexico border east to Texas, accidental in Colorado and Mississippi
WORLD RANGE
- USA/Mexico border, south through highlands of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, as far as central Nicaragua
White-eared Hummingbird distribution
CONSERVATION STATUS
MIGRATION
- Summer visitor in the USA
- Arriving in USA: April
- Departing USA: October
HABITAT
- Breeding: mountain canyons within pine-oak woodland
- Wintering: N/A
ELEVATION
- Breeding: 5000′ to 8,000′
- Wintering: N/A
NESTING
- Nest: nest woven from spider webs, plants, pine needles, lined with fine plant material and covered with lichen and moss. grasses, tree bark, leaves and other plant material
- Situation: 5 – 20 feet from the ground in a shrub or tree
- Eggs: two eggs, white
- Incubation: 14 – 16 days
FOOD
- Forages at low- to mid-level, mostly feeding on nostly nectar from flowers and sugar water from hummingbird feeders, but also small flying insects and spiders
VOICE
- Song: a series of high chips and rattles
- Call: a high “chip”, sometimes repeated in a descending series
Click here to listen
SUBSPECIES
- Basilinna leucotis borealis, SE Arizona (USA), N Mexico
- Basilinna leucotis leucotis, C and S Mexico, Guatemala
- Basilinna leucotis pygmaea, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua
SIMILAR SPECIES
IDENTIFICATION PITFALLS
- Over-excited birders in SE Arizona regularly mistake female Broad-billed Hummingbirds for the rare White-eared Hummingbird. This is because female Broad-billed shows a whitish and gray face pattern which can sometimes be suggestive of White-eared. However, White-eared is a smaller and stockier bird, has a much broader and whiter supercilium and a much broader and darker, black eyestripe. This bolder head pattern is even noticeable in recently fledged juvenile White-eared. It has a slimmer, shorter and straighter bill, a rounder head and shorter neck. A further clue is elevation, with White-eared being very scarce below 4,500′ in areas where Broad-billed is common, although they do overlap at higher elevations.
. - Occasionally a female Blue-throated Hummingbird is mistaken for a White-eared, mainly because Blue-throated has white behind the eye. Blue-throated is much larger, has an all black bill and a very large dark blue tail with obvious white corners.
Photo Gallery
Male White-eared Hummingbird (R.P Fray)
Male White-eared Hummingbird (R.P Fray)
Male White-eared Hummingbird (R.P Fray)
Male White-eared Hummingbird (R.P Fray)
Male White-eared Hummingbird (R.P Fray)
Male White-eared Hummingbird (R.P Fray)
