Cinnamon Hummingbird, Amazilia rutila
Cinnamon Hummingbird, Amazilia rutila, Juvenile. Photograph taken in the greater Zihuantanejo area, Guerrero, January 2020. Photograph and identification courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo.
Cinnamon Hummingbird, Amazilia rutila. Photographs taken in the greater Zihuatanejo area, Guerrero, January 2019. Photographs and identifications courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuatanejo.
Cinnamon Hummingbird, Amazilia rutila. Photograph taken in Copala, Sinaloa, February 2019. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.
Background and Identification
The Cinnamon Hummingbird, Amazilia rutila, is a member of the Trochididae Family of Hummingbirds. It is one of the easiest hummingbirds to identify due to its distinctive coloration. Like most species of hummingbird, the Cinnamon Hummingbird is a solitary species that forages alone in the understory and midstory of forests and into residential areas with lots of flowering shrubs, trees, and flowers. In Mexico, this species is known as Amazilia Canela.
The Cinnamon Hummingbird is small in stature, with an average mass of 5.0 g (0.18 oz) to 5.5 g (0.19 oz). The upperparts are a warm bronze-green, while the underparts, including the belly and chest, are a rich cinnamon color. The tail is rufous with a slightly forked shape, and the wings are relatively short and dark. The bill is long and slightly curved, with a reddish base and a black tip, making it well-adapted for feeding on nectar from a variety of flowers. Both sexes are similar in appearance, although the females tend to be slightly duller in color.
Habitat and Geographical Range
The Cinnamon Hummingbird inhabits a wide variety of environments, including dry forests, scrublands, gardens, and even urban areas where flowering plants are abundant. They are found in deciduous and semi-deciduous forests, thorn forests, and second growth. They feed primarily on a wide variety of flowers and also consume limited amounts of insects.
The Cinnamon Hummingbird is primarily found in Mexico and Central America, ranging from western Mexico down through Costa Rica. Highly adaptable to different elevations in Mexico, they are found in the coastal regions within the Atlantic Slope in the Yucatán Peninsula, and within the Pacific Slope from Sinaloa to Guatemala at elevations up to 1,600 m (5,200 feet). In areas with seasonal variation, the Cinnamon Hummingbird may move to lower elevations during the non-breeding season, following the availability of flowers. This behavior is called altitudinal migration.
Common Misidentifications
No other species of hummingbird in the same geographical range as the Cinnamon Hummingbird has the same uniform, cinnamon-colored underparts. The cinnamon and rusty underbelly coupled with the greenish head makes for easy identification. From a far distance, individual Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds, Amazilia tzacal, can be mistaken for the Cinnamon Hummingbird within the Mexican area of both species’ geographical range. However, the Rufous-tailed Hummingbird typically has a more metallic green upperparts and a brighter, more rufous tail, lacking the overall cinnamon coloration that defines the Cinnamon Hummingbird.
Conservation Status
From a conservation perspective, the Cinnamon Hummingbird is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. All hummingbirds rely on abundant flowering plants for food, making them all susceptible to habitat destruction and changes in floral abundance due to climate change or human activities. Conservation efforts focusing on the sustainability and growth of flowering gardens and forest coverage will aid in the populations of Cinnamon Hummingbirds throughout their geographical range.