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Xantus's Hummingbird,





These beautiful little birds only grow to about 9 cm long.

They are named after a Hungarian zoologist named John Xantus de Vesey.

They use their curved beaks and long tongues to feed on nectar from flowers. Males are very territorial around the flowering trees and will chase other birds and even bees and moths away from their area. They are excellent flyers and can catch insects in flight to eat, this is important as the females feed their young insects to help them grow quickly. They use up so much energy that they have to visit hundreds of flowers or catch hundreds of insects every day to survive.

At breeding time, the females make small cup-shaped nests with moss on the outside for camouflage. They line the nest with animal hair, feathers and spider webs, making the nest very flexible so that it can stretch in size when the chicks get bigger. They lay 2 eggs and the chicks are blind and featherless when born.

Xantus’s Hummingbirds are found on the Baja Peninsula in Mexico and are very common. They also sometimes fly further north to California.