Buff-bellied Hummingbird
- Family
- Trochilidae
- Conservation status (IUCN)
- Least Concern 2
Where and when to see the Buff-bellied Hummingbird
DraftOn the Yucatán Peninsula
It lives in dry forest, scrub, forest edges, orchards, parks and gardens. Look for it at flowers and feeders, where it often chases other hummingbirds away.
Where it’s reported most
- Playa Norte, Ciudad del CarmenCarmen, Campeche
- MuyilFelipe Carrillo Puerto, Quintana Roo
- Ruta de los CenotesPuerto Morelos, Quintana Roo
- XocénValladolid, Yucatán
When
All year
Reported all year.
Reports relative to effort
- January: 92%
- February: 85%
- March: 82%
- April: 68%
- May: 77%
- June: 70%
- July: 83%
- August: 87%
- September: 89%
- October: 87%
- November: 89%
- December: 100%
Data: eBird and other datasets via GBIF.org (CC BY 4.0), 2015–2026 · Base map: Natural Earth
Named yucatanensis after this peninsula, where it is common in scrub, forest edges and gardens. Look for the red, black-tipped bill and rufous tail.
- Identification
- A medium-sized green hummingbird with a red bill tipped black, a glittering green throat and breast, a buff belly and a rusty-orange tail. Males and females look much alike.
- Voice
- Hard “tik” notes while feeding, and a fast, high “see-see-see-su-su” when it chases other hummingbirds.
What the photo doesn’t show
DraftYucatecan by name
Its scientific name, yucatanensis, means “from Yucatán”. The specimen used to describe it in 1845 was collected in Yucatán by Samuel Cabot Jr. and is kept at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. 1,2
North for the winter
Birds on the Yucatán Peninsula stay all year, but after nesting some from Texas fly north-east to spend the winter in Louisiana and Florida. Hardly any other North American hummingbird moves north for the winter. 3,4,5
Boss of the feeder
It is very territorial. Using its larger size, it chases other hummingbirds, and even insects, away from flowers and feeders. 3,5
January nests
On the Yucatán Peninsula it can start nesting as early as January. The nest is a small cup of plant down bound with spider silk and covered with lichen and bits of bark. 5
Sources
- iDigBio: MCZ holotype of Trochilus yucatanensis (opens in a new tab)
- IUCN Red List category, via GBIF: Amazilia yucatanensis (opens in a new tab)
- All About Birds: Buff-bellied Hummingbird (opens in a new tab)
- Birds of the World (Cornell Lab): Buff-bellied Hummingbird (opens in a new tab)
- Wikipedia: Buff-bellied hummingbird (opens in a new tab)
Map and months: 6,494 records from 2015–2026 from eBird, Inventario de aves y mamíferos en humedales de Laguna de Términos y Pantanos de Centla en Tabasco y Campeche, and others, via GBIF.org (CC BY 4.0), in 0.1° squares (about 10 km). eBird: doi.org/10.15468/aomfnb.
Months: the species’ records ÷ all bird records that month, scaled to the busiest month. It allows for birding effort; it is not the chance of seeing it. A blank square: few or no reports, not necessarily absent.
Tell us where, or ask how to find one.
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