Not to be outdone by its relatives, the broadbilled hummingbird is one of the most stunning in its family. The males sport vibrant emerald bodies, iridescent sapphire throats and bright red bills tipped with black, and the females deserve equal admiration with their sleek gray bodies and a distinct white line next to each eye.
"This is the wow hummingbird of North America," says Dan Weisz, an expert naturalist, photographer and volunteer presenter at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.
And they're not all that hard to see most of the year as they flit from backyard feeders to their favorite native flowers.
Going the Distance
This story is from the June/July 2024 edition of Birds & Blooms.
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This story is from the June/July 2024 edition of Birds & Blooms.
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Sense or Nonsense? - Why some birds can taste and smell - but others can't
Does a porcelain berry taste like a blueberry to a gray catbird? Does a block of lard smell like frying bacon to a northern flicker? The short answer is no. While some avian species do have a well-adapted sense of taste or smell, they can't distinguish between flavors and odors the way humans can. They're not picking up every ingredient in the suet you put out, says José Ramírez-Garofalo, an ornithology researcher at Rutgers University in New Jersey and the director of Freshkills Biological Station in Staten Island, New York.
Maple Mania - Amazing facts about this fall foliage mainstay
Amazing facts about this fall foliage mainstay
Food-Focused and Fierce - Meet Canada jays and learn why they eat almost anything they can find
Even if you haven't heard of Canada jays, you've heard of their relatives. Members of the corvid family, they belong to the same group as American crows, blackbilled magpies, and jays including blue, Steller's and scrub. "Unlike many of the other jays, a Canada jay doesn't have a crest of any kind; it just has a rounded head," says Dale Gentry, director of conservation for Audubon Upper Mississippi River.In 2018, the Canada jay's name was changed from gray jay, but Dale thinks the former adjective was fitting. "Most of its body is shades of gray with some white," he says. "There are different subspecies that have different physical traits, but most of them have some lighter coloring on their foreheads, upper breasts and throats, each with a darker streak that starts at each eye and goes back."
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