Violet-crowned Hummingbird, Leucolia violiceps

Violet-crowned Hummingbird, Leucolia violiceps ellioti. Photograph taken within a residential community in Alamos, Sonora, February 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Violet-crowned Hummingbird, Leucolia violiceps ellioti. Photograph taken within a residential community in Hereford, Arizona, July 2011. Photograph and identification courtesy of Bob Behrstock, Sierra Vista, Arizona (naturewideimages.com).

The Violet-crowned Hummingbird, Leucolia violicps ellioti, is one of two subspecies of Violet-crowned Hummingbird, both of which are 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 two global species of the Leucolia Genus. They are known in Mexico as amazilia coronivioleta.

The Violet-crowned Hummingbird is medium-large in stature and long bodied. The sexes are similar in appearance. They are characterized by having their crown and auriculars being iridescent bluish violet, their hindneck being intermixed with bluish violet, their foreneck, chin, throat and undertail coverts are white and their back, scapular and rump being a dull grayish brown to greenish-brown. Their bill is bright red or reddish at the base with a red tip, their iris is brown, their legs and feet are dusky, their tail is a dull grayish green to greenish bronze and their wings are dusky.

The Violet-crowned Hummingbird is found within the riparian zones of arid canyons semiarid scrub, riparian and oak woodlands and parks and gardens at elevations between 200 m (660 feet) and 2,400 m (7,900 feet). They are only able to move via flight as their legs are unable to support their body weight. They consume a wide variety of floral nectars from a wide variety of plants and limited amounts of small insects and spiders. They are non-migratory and year-round residents within most locations but will wander locally to different habitats during the year following seasonal blooms of trees and shrubs. A limited number of the northern populations make southernly migrations for wintering. They are known to breed throughout most of western and central Mexico. They are known to frequent bird feeders. The Violet-crowned Hummingbird is poorly studied and very little about their behavioral patterns has been documented.

In Mexico the Violet-crowned Hummingbird is found within the Pacific slope from Sonora to Guerrero and northwest Oaxaca. They are also found in the interior Madrean Highlands from western Chihuahua south through Durango and Hidalgo to northwest Oaxaca. The ellioti subspecies is found from southeast Arizona to southwest New Mexico south to northwest and central Mexico in the states of Michoacán and Hidalgo.

From a conservation perspective the Violet-crowned Hummingbird is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. Their long-term viability of the Violet-crowned Hummingbird is threatened by loss of riparian habitat.