Klamath Network Featured Creature August 2009

National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

FIELD NOTES: (Archilochus alexandri)

General Description: Reproduction: The Black-chinned Hummingbird is a small to The male will court the female with a medium-sized hummingbird, about 3 ¼ inches series of shallow dips and a high-pitched long at maturity and weighing about 3 g or 0.1 warbling song. After mating, the male oz. The bill is long, straight, and thin. Adults returns to his loner life. The female have brilliantly shiny green backs, green sides, builds a well-camouflaged nest, taking and a white belly. As the name implies, males about 3 days to construct it. A. alexandri have a dark head and chin. The males also have nests about 4-8 feet high in a tree, often an iridescent violet throat band and a dark over water, and along a drooping or forked tail. The less conspicuous female has a forked branch. The down of young white-tipped rounded tail and a few black dots sycamore trees and other plants is on the throat instead of a patch, similar in looks woven together with spider webs and to the female Ruby-throated Hummingbird. lichens make a soft, elastic nest. The Juvenile males resemble females but are elasticity of the nest allows it to expand distinguishable by a dark streak on the throat. to double its size while the chicks are growing larger inside. Two to three eggs Habitat and Distribution: are laid between April and September, Although highly territorial, the Black-chinned depending on location. The female hummingbird will share its space when food is incubates the pinkish-white eggs for 13- bountiful. They migrate to higher elevations 16 days. Young fledge at about 20 days with the timing of the flower blooms. Their old. choice of habitat is broad, from canyons and deserts, to savannas and chaparral, to forests Diet: Female (top) and male (bottom). and foothills. Black-chins have the most Images by Larry Thompson. Black-chins savor delicious pollen, extensive breeding range of all northwestern (http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20o?search=Archilochus nectar, and insects. Their long hummingbirds. They are found across western +alexandri) extendable tongues reach into the North America, from southern British flowers and also snag insects’ wings. Columbia to northern Mexico, and from the They will eat insects found around Pacific Coast to Texas. Winter migrations take flowers during the day and may actively this hummingbird to the more southern portions hunt for insects by perching on a branch of its range. Black-chins leave Washington, and darting out into the open, catching Oregon, and California in September/October, flying insects. This hummingbird occurs headed to Arizona and Mexico. Before taking around many population centers and part in the long migration, A. alexandri will also enjoys sugar water from a feeder. fuel up, increasing its body weight 25-50%. As a small hummingbird, their main predators are insect-eating birds and Where to see in the Network: animals. A. alexandri is found in Whiskeytown, Crater Click here to see a video of a male Lake, and Lava Beds, and is common feeding on a flower. throughout this region. More Information: Conservation Status: Trussler, A. 2001. "Archilochus Black-chins are common throughout their alexandri" (On-line), Animal Diversity range. They are also frequently found in Web. Accessed August 27, 2009 at suburbs and human communities in the http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/ hummingbird’s habitat. site/accounts/information/Archilochus_ alexandri.html.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black- chinned_Hummingbird/id