Broad-billed Hummingbird, Cynanthus latirostris

Broad-billed Hummingbird, Cynanthus latirostris magicusis, Juvenile, Male. Photograph taken within a residential community in Alamos, Sonora, February 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Broad-billed Hummingbird, Cynanthus latirostris magicusis, Male. Photograph taken within a residential community in Alamos, Sonora, February 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Broad-billed Hummingbird, Cynanthus latirostris magicusis, Male. Photograph taken within the greater Palm Springs area of southern California, March 2021. Photography courtesy of Dr. Tom Bartol, Carlsbad, California.

Broad-billed Hummingbird, Cynanthus latirostris magicusis, Female. Photograph taken within a residential community in Alamos, Sonora, March 2017. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

The Broad-billed Hummingbird, Cynanthus latirostris magocusis and Cynanthus latirostris propinquus, are two of four subspecies of Broad-billed Hummingbird, each of which is found in Mexico. They are a member of the Trochilidae Family of Hummingbirds, which has three hundred fifty-two members placed in one hundred thirteen genera, and one of five global species of the Cynanthus Genus. They are known in Mexico as colibri piquianchio común.

The Broad-billed Hummingbird is slender in appearance and small in stature. They are sexually dimorphic with the males being swathed in iridescent greens and blues with a deep purple gorget, white under tail coverts, a broad, notched glossy blue-black tail and a bright red bill that allows for a straightforward identification. The females are similarly marked but duller in color and have gray underparts.

The Broad-billed Hummingbirds is found predominantly within the riparian zones of arid canyons and at elevations below 3,000 m (9,900 feet). They consume a wide variety of floral nectars from a wide and diverse number of cultivated and wild plants and limited amounts of small insects. They are only able to move via flight as their legs are unable to support their body weight. The Broad-billed Hummingbird is poorly studied and very little about their biology and behavioral patterns has been documented which is attributed to its range being limited to very remote areas.

In Mexico the Broad-billed Hummingbird are found in the northwest in the states of Sinaloa and Sonora south to Colima and east to Aguascalientes and in west-central Veracruz and northerly Guerrero. The magicus subspecies has a limited range being found in northwest Mexico, primarily in the states of Sinaloa and Sonora but ranges south to Colima and east to Aguascalientes. The propinquus subspecies is found in central Mexico from Guanajuato through Michoacán to northern Guerrero; the bird photographed above represents a possible range extension into the coastal regions of Oaxaca. The northern populations are migratory and travel south for the winter. The Southern populations are non-migratory and are year-round residents.

From a conservation perspective the Broad-billed Hummingbird is currently considered to be of Least Concern with increasing populations.