Hummingbirds of the Americas: Photo Highlights

Hummingbirds comprise the family Trochilidae, among the smallest of birds, with most species measuring in the 3"-5" range. According to the International Ornithologists' Union (IOU), the hummingbird family has 366 species and 112 genera, mostly south of the United States. Hummingbirds are found only in the Western Hemisphere, with nearly half the species living in the "equatorial belt" which lies between 10 degrees north and south of the equator.

These tiny New World creatures are called "hummingbirds" due to the "humming" sound created by beating their wings, which flap at high frequencies audible to other birds as well as humans.

Various species of hummingbirds can be found in these areas of the Americas:

• United States
• Canada
• Mexico
• Central America
• South America
• Islands of the Caribbean Sea

Hummingbirds are not found in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, or Antarctica.

The colors, shapes and sizes of the hummingbird family are quite diverse, as shown in the photo highlights below (in alphabetical order).

Photo Highlights of Hummingbird Species

Allen's	Anna's	Berylline
Black-chinned	Blue-throated	Booted-racket Tail
Broad-billed	Broad-tailed	Buff-bellied
Buff-tailed Coronet   Albino and Leucistic Hummingbirds	Buff-winged Starfrontlet	Calliope
Chestnut-breasted Coronet Cinnamon	Collared Inca	Coppery-headed Emerald Costa's
Fiery-throated Green-breasted Mango	Green-crowned Brilliant	Green Violet-ear
Long-billed Hermit Long-billed Starthroat	Long-tailed Sylph	Lucifer Mexican Violetear
Plain-capped Starthroat	Purple-billed Whitetip	Purple-crowned Fairy Purple-throated Mountain Gem
Rivoli's	Ruby-throated	Rufous
Rufous-tailed	Shining Sunbeam Speckled Hummingbird
Stripe-throated	Sword-billed	Tourmaline Sunangel
Velvet-purple Coronet	Violet-crowned	White-bellied Mountain Gem
White-bellied Woodstar White-eared	White-necked Jacobin	White-throated Mountain Gem
Special thanks go out to the great nature photographers Alan Schmierer and Rolf Riethof for sharing many of their beautiful public-domain photographs of hummingbirds on this website via Flickr.