The fastest way to sort out types of hummingbirds is by where you live, not by field marks. Most of North America only sees three or four species regularly, and the Ruby-throated in the east versus the Anna’s or Rufous crowd in the west already narrows things down before you even lift the binoculars.
Beyond range, the real tells are throat color in the right light, tail shape, and how the bird behaves at a feeder. The one most people get wrong is calling every green hummer with a red throat a Ruby-throated, when in parts of the country that same bird is far more likely to be a Broad-tailed or an Anna’s. The underrated one, the Calliope, gets skipped constantly because people assume it is “just a small female” of something else.
Below are 15 types of hummingbirds grouped by how you actually encounter them: the common backyard regulars, the western specialists, the desert and mountain birds, and the rare strays worth knowing so you do not talk yourself out of a real sighting. Number 13 is the one that fools even experienced birders in fall. The full identification method, plus the last few standout entries, is at the bottom, so keep scrolling.
The Backyard Regulars
These are the species most people in North America will actually see at a feeder or salvia patch.
1. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
The only breeding hummingbird east of the Great Plains, so in the eastern half of the country, any hummingbird you see from spring through fall is almost certainly this one. Males show an iridescent red throat that can look black in shade, females are plain white below with a greenish back. They migrate to Central America and back, arriving as early feeder guests right around when azaleas bloom.
2. Black-chinned Hummingbird
The default western urban hummingbird across much of the interior west, tolerant of yards, parks, and dry scrub alike. Males have a black throat with a thin purple band at the bottom that only flashes in direct sun, otherwise it reads as solid dark. They are less flashy than Anna’s but far more common in places like New Mexico and inland California suburbs.
3. Anna’s Hummingbird
The one that stays put all winter along the Pacific coast, when almost every other species has migrated south. Males have a rose-pink hood covering the entire head and throat, not just a throat patch, which makes them easy to separate from Black-chinned or Costa’s. They are the most likely hummingbird to visit a feeder in December in California and the Pacific Northwest.
4. Rufous Hummingbird
The aggressive orange one that bullies everything else off the feeder, common along the Pacific coast in migration and breeding in the Pacific Northwest and up into Alaska. Males are almost entirely coppery orange with a orange-red throat, females and juveniles show rufous only on the flanks and tail base. They have one of the longest migrations of any hummingbird relative to their size, some traveling nearly the length of the continent twice a year.
Those four cover most yards, but the western mountains and deserts hold species with much narrower ranges.
Western Mountain and Desert Specialists
These species are tied to specific habitat, so location does most of the identification work for you.
5. Broad-tailed Hummingbird
The high-elevation breeder of Rocky Mountain meadows, common from about 6,000 to 10,000 feet in summer across Colorado, Utah, and the interior west. Males have a rose-red throat similar to Ruby-throated but announce themselves with a distinctive metallic trilling wing sound in flight that Ruby-throated does not make. If you hear a cricket-like buzz overhead in a mountain meadow, look up.
6. Calliope Hummingbird
The smallest bird in North America, barely 3 inches long and weighing about as much as a penny. Males have a streaked magenta throat that looks like rays rather than a solid patch, and the tail is short, giving the whole bird a stubby, compact look. They breed in high mountain meadows of the northwest interior and are frequently mistaken for female or juvenile birds of other species simply because of their size.
7. Costa’s Hummingbird
The desert specialist of the Sonoran and Mojave, built for heat and built for looking almost cartoonish when the light hits right. Males have a deep violet throat and crown that extends into long flared side plumes, giving a mustache-like look unlike any other species. They are common in southern California, Arizona, and Nevada desert scrub, especially around ocotillo and chuparosa bloom.
8. Broad-billed Hummingbird
The one with the red bill, a genuinely rare trait among North American hummingbirds and an instant giveaway. Males are deep emerald green with a blue throat and that bright coral-red bill, found mainly in canyons of southeastern Arizona and parts of New Mexico and Texas. They favor shaded streamside vegetation more than open desert.
Those four are worth learning by habitat alone, but the true rarities are where things get genuinely tricky.
Rare Strays and Regional Specialties
These species show up in a narrow region or only as occasional wanderers outside it, which is exactly why misidentification happens so often.
9. Allen’s Hummingbird
The coastal California look-alike for Rufous, nearly identical in the orange-and-red male plumage but with a green back instead of Rufous’s fully coppery back. They breed in a narrow coastal strip of California and winter mainly in Mexico, with a resident population on the Channel Islands and parts of the mainland coast. Telling them apart from Rufous females in the field is genuinely difficult even for experienced birders.
10. Buff-bellied Hummingbird
The one with a warm buff-orange belly and a bright red bill, found mainly along the Texas Gulf coast and increasingly reported in winter as far as the southeastern states. The back is bronzy green, the tail is rufous, and the overall look is warmer and more muted than the flashier desert species. It is one of the few hummingbirds that regularly overwinters outside the far west.
11. Violet-crowned Hummingbird
The plain-bellied one with a shocking crown, mostly white below with almost no iridescent throat patch at all, which makes the electric violet-blue crown stand out even more by contrast. Found in a small range of southeastern Arizona canyons and adjacent Mexico, favoring sycamore-lined streams. Its bright red-based bill is another quick confirming mark.
12. Lucifer Hummingbird
The one with a curved bill and a purple throat that flares like a beard, found in a tiny range of desert canyons in the Big Bend region of Texas and adjacent New Mexico and Arizona. Males have a deeply forked tail and that distinctive downward-curved bill shaped for feeding on specific tubular desert flowers like agave and ocotillo. It is a genuine specialty bird that draws birders specifically to Big Bend to see it.
13. Rufous Hummingbird in fall (female and juvenile confusion)
The one that fools even experienced birders, because female and juvenile Rufous, Allen’s, and even some Broad-tailed all show a similar greenish back with rufous flanks and a lightly spotted throat in late summer migration. At this age and season, tail feather shape and the exact pattern of rufous coloring at the base of the tail are often the only reliable separators, and even banders sometimes need the bird in hand to be sure. If you see a confusing rufous-flanked hummingbird in September, the honest answer is that a photo and a careful look at the tail is your best shot, not a quick guess.
The last two entries below round out the list with species most people have never even heard of.
The Ones Almost Nobody Knows
These rarely make it into casual conversation about hummingbirds, but they are real, regularly documented species worth knowing before you dismiss an odd sighting.
14. Berylline Hummingbird
An occasional visitor from Mexico that shows up in small numbers in the mountain canyons of southeastern Arizona, particularly in late summer. It is almost entirely metallic green with rufous wings and tail visible in flight, lacking the bold throat patch of most male hummingbirds on this list. Seeing one is enough of an event that it typically gets reported to local birding groups within the day.
15. Green Violet-ear
A true vagrant from Central America, showing up unpredictably as far north as Texas and occasionally even farther, usually a single bird at a single feeder for a few days before moving on. It is a large hummingbird by North American standards, deep green overall with a violet-blue ear patch and a violet chest band. There is no reliable place to expect one, which is exactly what makes a sighting worth documenting with photos immediately.
How to Choose the Right One
Choosing which hummingbird you are actually looking at, or which species to expect and plant for, comes down to a short, repeatable process.
- Start with range: narrow the list to species actually recorded in your state and season before comparing plumage details.
- Check the season: summer breeding birds look different from fall migrants in duller, worn, or juvenile plumage.
- Look at the throat in direct light: iridescent throat colors can look black or dull in shade and only flash true color at the right angle.
- Note tail shape and behavior: forked, rounded, or short tails, plus aggressive versus tolerant feeder behavior, separate look-alikes fast.
- Listen for sound: wing trills and chip notes are often more diagnostic than plumage, especially for Broad-tailed and Calliope.
- When still unsure, photograph and compare later: female and juvenile birds in particular are often impossible to call confidently in the field alone.
Fifteen species, one shared habit: they will all take a red tubular flower or a clean feeder over almost anything else you plant.
Learn your regulars cold, and the rare ones will announce themselves.
