Every morning as the sun comes up, you climb out of your house and hear the high-pitched whining of something zipping around between the trees, but it’s not any kind of insect. If your eye is fast, you might see a thumb-sized shape dart through the air. They’re humming birds, not just one kind, but many, hummingbirds of the likes that I have never seen living in the steamy summer valleys of Missouri.
A friend of mine said to me yesterday that, “Every kind of hummingbird found in the US come here to the Colorado Mountains.” I don’t know if that’s completely true, but here is a short list of some of the hummingbirds you can see if you come up here and hang a feeder in a tree. Some of them I’ve seen personally. (Please note that there is some considerable confusion on the internet as to the identification of all the hummingbirds I’ve seen around here. Therefore, please feel free to correct me on identification if one of these pictures is mis-labeled.
"Broad-Tailed Hummingbird."
This is not a Ruby-throated hummingbird, as I first thought. According to one birding website: “A similar, but slightly larger broad-tailed hummingbird (Selasphorus platycerus) of the mountainous western US is often mistaken for the ruby-throated hummingbird, but the broad-tailed hummingbird does not have the forked tail of the ruby-throated.”
Female Rufous Hummingbird
I would post a pic of a male Rufous, but for some reason, most of the “male rufous” pictures are all of one hummingbird that looks startlingly like the Broad-tail above. Hmmm… I think some people on the net are confused.
Like I said, if you want more – and accurate – details, go find a bird book. I wouldn’t rely on the internet much, especially when all the bird pics look amazingly similar. o.O
Happy birding! Peace.
Diary of a Wandering Hen 
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