Allen’s Hummingbird

Allen’s Hummingbird is a fun bird to see while bird watching. Below are some tips to help you identify Allen’s Hummingbirds. We have also put together a list of fun Allen’s Hummingbird t-shirts, Allen’s Hummingbird bird patches, birdhouses, bird feeders, binoculars, stickers, and other fun bird-watching items.

About Allen’s Hummingbirds

This is one of the smallest hummingbird species in the United States. It has two sub-species, the non-migratory California-bound Sedentarius and the smaller of the two, Sasin, which lives mostly in New Mexico.

Description and Identification

Allen’s Hummingbird has a rufous tail, greenback, and dark bill; difficult to safely separate from immature Rufous. The Male has an iridescent red throat and shiny greenback. Female’s chin, throat, and chest are a dull white, the center of the throat with a variably sized patch of red feathers
 
Female is so similar to the Rufous Hummingbird that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other in the field. Her back is bright green. Its gorget is white and speckled with green and bronze feathers. Her underparts are white and rufous. The tail is quite long and rounded extending well beyond the wings. In the shuttle, they fly short distances side to side in front of a female with their gorget flared out while trilling their wings. After the pendulum display, males fly
up to 100 feet into the air. On their return they emit a sharp trill with their tail, pulling out of the dive right in front of the female.

Allen’s Hummingbird Size

Their wingspan is around 4.3 inches. They weigh 2-4 grams. The adult of the species grows to a maximum length of about 3.5 inches.

Allen’s Hummingbird Appearance

The adult male’s throat has feathers that slightly point to the outside and are red. It has bronze-green feathers on top of its head and back while the sides of its face and chest are cinnamon-colored. Its tail is a plain orange with dark tips.

The female has a white chest, throat, and chin and a bronze-green back. The sides of the head and chest are similar to those of the males. Its tail shows a unique color pattern, with the three outermost pairs of feathers being orange at the base, black in the middle, and white at the tip. The chicks look similar to the females but with puffier feathers.

Allen’s Hummingbird Food

The Allen’s Hummingbird drinks nectar from flowers, as well as eating any small insects it finds crawling around the flower blossom, which provides it with needed protein. They sip nectar from flowers such as bush monkeyflower, Indian paintbrush, columbine, currant, gooseberry, twinflower, penstemon, ceanothus, sage, eucalyptus, and manzanita. They get their protein by capturing small insects in midair or picking them off plants.

They mainly feed on nectar and sap from feeders and trees. They also feed on insects that they catch in flight or pluck from the ground to provide protein.

Allen’s Hummingbird Habitat

They breed along the Pacific coast from southern Oregon to southern California. Resident in extreme southern California, winters from southern California and Arizona to central Mexico and sometimes can be found along with the Gulf Coast states. Preferred habitats include coastal chaparral, brushlands, and edges of redwood forests. The more widely distributed subspecies, sasin, inhabits mixed evergreen, riparian woodlands, eucalyptus and cypress groves, oak woodlands, and coastal scrub areas in the breeding season.

The birds breed and live in moist areas of the coast. However, during winter, they migrate to forest edges and seek shelter in scrub clearings and generally flowery areas that allow easy access to nectar. Males prefer open areas whereas females prefer to nest in areas with thick vegetation and forests.

Range and Migration

You will find Allen’s Hummingbird Commonly only in the foothills of coastal California, and southern Oregon. Sometimes visitor to Texas. Allen’s Hummingbirds winter as far south as southern Mexico. They move north up the Pacific Coast in late winter, and south through the mountains in late summer. A close relative of the Rufous Hummingbird, Allen’s has a more limited range, nesting mostly in California. These early migrants mostly spend the winter in Mexico, but some stay in southern California year-round.

Nesting

Female Allen’s Hummingbirds gather spiderwebs and downy material from willows and flowers in the sunflower family to form the base and inner part of the nest. She sticks the downy fibers together with spiderwebs and uses her body to shape the inside of the cup. She weaves small pieces of grass and leaves to form a thin outer layer and camouflages the outside with pieces of lichen and moss. It takes her 7–13 days to build a nest that is about 1.25 inches across on the inside. Females frequently build new nests on top of old ones or steal material from old nests to build a new one in a different location.

Allen’s Hummingbird Life and Behavior

They live solitary lives and the only interaction between the males and females is during the actual mating. No bond is formed between mating pairs and the females raise the young ones on their own. Their young leave the nest within three weeks of hatching.

Ornithology

Bird Watching Academy & Camp Subscription Boxes

At the Bird Watching Academy & Camp we help kids, youth, and adults get excited and involved in bird watching. We have several monthly subscription boxes that you can subscribe to. Our monthly subscription boxes help kids, youth, and adults learn about birds, bird watching, and bird conservation.

Bird Watching Binoculars for Identifying Allen’s Hummingbirds

The most common types of bird-watching binoculars for viewing Allen’s Hummingbirds are 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. Bird Watching Academy & Camp sells really nice 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. You can view and purchase them here.

Allen’s Hummingbird Stickers

Stickers are a great way for you to display your love for bird watching and Allen’s Hummingbird. We sell a monthly subscription sticker pack. The sticker packs have 12 bird stickers. These sticker packs will help your kids learn new birds every month.

Bird Feeders for Allen’s Hummingbird

There are many types of bird feeders. Bird feeders are a great addition to your backyard. Bird feeders will increase the chances of attracting birds drastically. Both kids and adults will have a great time watching birds eat at these bird feeders. There are a wide variety of bird feeders on the market and it is important to find the best fit for you and your backyard.

Best Bird Houses for Allen’s Hummingbirds

There are many types of birdhouses. Building a birdhouse is always fun but can be frustrating. These 4 birdhouses have become our favorites. Getting a birdhouse for kids to watch birds grow is always fun. We spent a little extra money on these birdhouses but they have been worth the higher price and look great.