The male Rufous, glowing like new copper penny, often defends a patch of flowers in a mountain meadow, vigorously chasing away all intruders (including larger birds). The Rufous also nests farther north than any other hummingbird: up to south-central Alaska.
The most common hummingbird species are Broad-tailed, Rufous … Rufous Hummingbirds are wide-ranging, and breed farther north than any other hummingbird. © Spencer Follett | Macaulay Library We are also receiving first sighting reports from Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. After a day or two, rufous hummingbirds take control of the feeders and even chase away the broad-tailed hummingbirds. When the bright orange males of another species, the rufous hummingbird, arrive around the second week of July, the commotion grows exponentially. Ruby-throated hummingbirds - which visit Colorado - have nests about the size of a thimble, according to the FWS website.
Females are green above with rufous-washed flanks, rufous patches in the green tail, and often a spot of orange in the throat. The following 11 hummingbird species (with photos and ID assistance) have been reported in Colorado. Ruby-throated hummingbirds are moving northward quickly, with the front line of the migration appearing in the northern areas of Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and New York, and also New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.
Colorado Springs, CO www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Rufous_Hummingbird/id Lookin' back over summer moments In good light, male Rufous Hummingbirds glow like coals: bright orange on the back and belly, with a vivid iridescent-red throat. Migrating hummingbirds usually arrive in late April and leave in early September. The brilliant orange male and the green-and-orange female Rufous Hummingbird are relentless attackers at flowers and feeders, going after (if not always defeating) even the large hummingbirds of the Southwest, which can be double their weight. After this changing of the guard, there is a rufous on a perch above every feeder.