Violet-crowned Hummingbird - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by Lisa W
Paton's Hummingbird House, Patagonia, Arizona, USA

Ramosomyia violiceps

Leucolia violiceps
Amazilia violiceps

Identification

11.5cm. Pure white underside, red bill with a black tip, dull grey-green to bronze-green back and tail, bright blue-violet crown.

Distribution

South-west USA to Mexico.

Taxonomy

This is a polytypic species^[1] consisting of 2 subspecies.

Violet-crowned Hummingbird is sometimes placed in genus Agyrtria.

Subspecies

• R. v. ellioti
  

Semiarid southwestern US to western Mexico (Jalisco and Guanajuato)

• R. v. violiceps
  

Southwestern Mexico

Habitat

Sycamore and cottonwood woods along streams in desert canyons.

Behaviour

The diet includes nectar and insects caught on the wing.

The female builds a nest in a shrub or tree and 2 white eggs are laid.

References

1. Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2023. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2023. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Wethington, S. M. (2021). Violet-crowned Hummingbird (Leucolia violiceps), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (Editor not available). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.vichum.01.1

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Violet-crowned Hummingbird. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 5 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Violet-crowned_Hummingbird

External Links

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