Mexican Violetear: The Hummingbird That Turns Up Almost Anywhere

An immature Mexican Violetear spent a single afternoon in a backyard in Port Alberni, on Vancouver Island, on September 4, 2014, and reviewers who accepted the record onto British Columbia's official checklist called it "incredible" given how far south this hummingbird actually breeds, according to BC Rare Bird Records. That single day in a Canadian backyard is not really an outlier. Accepted records for this species also include two separate Maryland sightings, birds as far as Wisconsin and Michigan, and, of course, an annual fall presence in Texas, an unusually wide scatter for a bird whose actual home is the mountain forests of Mexico and Central America.

The bird also carries a name that's barely a decade old. Until 2016, ornithologists lumped this species together with a more southerly relative under a single name, Green Violetear, and that older name still shows up in field guides and web pages today. What follows is how that split happened, how to identify the bird that kept the northern range, why its wandering habit reads less like a border-zone specialty and more like a hummingbird that could plausibly show up at almost any US feeder, and where it actually belongs on the map the rest of the year. For the fuller roster of species that do turn up regularly in US backyards, see Types of Hummingbirds You'll Actually See in the US.

A Name That Changed in 2016

In 2016, the classification committee that sets official English and scientific bird names for the AOS split the single species then known as Green Violetear into two. eBird's own account of that year's taxonomy update states it directly: "Green Violetear Colibri thalassinus is split into two species, a monotypic Mexican Violetear Colibri thalassinus, of highland forests from Mexico to Nicaragua, and the polytypic Lesser Violetear Colibri cyanotus," according to eBird's 2016 taxonomy update. The northern population kept the original scientific name and became Mexican Violetear; the more southerly population, ranging from Costa Rica through the Andes into Venezuela, became Lesser Violetear, per Wikipedia's Lesser Violetear entry.

The split was not a snap judgment. A parallel proposal submitted to South America's own classification committee, dated January 2016, lays out the underlying reasoning: the two populations differ enough in plumage, particularly the presence or absence of conspicuous blue on the underparts, that treating them as one species was already a stretch. That proposal also confirms North America's classification committee had adopted the identical split, describing how the committee had begun treating the northern birds "under a different species name" from the birds farther south, according to the South American Classification Committee's proposal.

This isn't the only US hummingbird carrying a name that changed within the last decade. Blue-throated Hummingbird, another species that reaches the southwestern US, was renamed by that same classification committee for reasons specific to its own genus. The pattern, same bird, new official label, comes up often enough in current hummingbird taxonomy that it's worth checking the publication date on whatever guide or article a person happens to be reading.

Field Marks: How to Identify a Mexican Violetear

A glittering violet patch across the ear coverts, not a red or magenta throat, is the field mark that actually gives this bird its name. Audubon's field guide describes the species as "dark green with blue-violet ear patch and chest," with a tail that reads "blue-green, crossed by blackish band" and a straight, all-dark bill, per Audubon's Mexican Violetear field guide.

More specifically, the bird measures roughly 3.8 to 4.7 inches long, shining green above with that "glittering violet ear-patch on the sides of its neck," a green throat and chest crossed by a second violet patch, a shining green belly, and a metallic blue-green tail with bronze central feathers and a prominent blackish band near the tip, according to Wikipedia's Mexican Violetear entry. eBird's own species page independently describes the same two features in plainer terms: "dark violet cheek and breast patches" and a "broad dark tail band" as the bird's most distinctive marks, per eBird's species page.

Unlike many US hummingbirds, males and females look essentially alike in this species, according to Audubon's field guide, so the violet ear and chest patches, not a sex-limited gorget, are the marks to check first. The bird also runs on the larger side, distinctly bulkier than a Ruby-throated or Anna's Hummingbird, and its all-dark bill combined with the total absence of red, orange, or true magenta in the plumage rules out most of the other hummingbirds it could plausibly be confused with at a feeder.

Core Range: Highland Mexico to Nicaragua

This bird's actual home sits well above sea level. Wikipedia's range summary states the species "breeds from the highlands of southern Mexico south to Nicaragua," in montane subtropical and lower temperate forest, secondary woodland, and scrub, typically between about 1,200 and 2,300 meters, roughly 3,900 to 7,500 feet, with occasional birds recorded as low as 500 meters, according to Wikipedia's Mexican Violetear entry.

Pine-oak forest edges, overgrown clearings, and roadsides thick with flowering shrubs are where the species is easiest to actually find within that range. eBird describes the bird as fairly common and conspicuous, singing "tirelessly from an exposed twig at middle to upper levels in trees" even while staying comparatively hidden while it actually forages among flowers, according to eBird's species page.

The species doesn't stay put even within that highland range. Audubon's field guide describes it as "apparently somewhat nomadic," moving between mountain ranges as flowering conditions change, a habit that sets up the pattern covered next: a bird already inclined to wander long distances within Mexico and Central America occasionally wanders much, much farther, according to Audubon's field guide.

The Vagrancy Pattern: A Mexican Hummingbird That Reaches Canada

Texas is where this species shows up on a fairly predictable basis. Wikipedia's account calls it "a rare but annual nonbreeding visitor to the United States, primarily southern and central Texas," typically in fall, per Wikipedia's Mexican Violetear entry. On its own, that would make the bird an unremarkable regional specialty, the kind of Mexican hummingbird that stays close to a single border state.

What breaks that pattern is everywhere else the bird has turned up with enough documentation to be accepted onto official checklists. Maryland accepted two separate records within two weeks of each other in October 2011: one in Cecil County from October 10 to 12, and a second in Howard County from October 24 to 26, close enough in timing that reviewers openly wondered whether it was the same well-traveled bird passing through twice, according to the Maryland Biodiversity Project.

Farther north and west, the record gets harder still to explain as ordinary post-breeding wandering. Individual birds have strayed as far as Wisconsin and Michigan, per South Dakota Birds' species account, and on September 4, 2014, that immature Mexican Violetear spent its single documented day in a backyard on Vancouver Island, photographed by a local birder. The reviewers who accepted the British Columbia record noted it followed only two previously accepted records anywhere on the entire US West Coast, both in California, according to BC Rare Bird Records.

Audubon's field guide sums up the overall pattern about as plainly as a field guide will: beyond the annual Texas visitors, wanderers have "appeared in scattered locations from coast to coast and north as far as Canada," according to Audubon's field guide. Put those documented points on a map, Gulf Coast Texas, the mid-Atlantic, the upper Midwest, and the Pacific coast of Canada, and compare that spread to the far tighter border-zone pattern typical of other Mexican hummingbird specialties that stay within a single sky-island range. Mexican Violetear stands out as something closer to a hummingbird that could plausibly appear at almost any feeder in the country, however unlikely any single sighting still is.

Nomadic Wandering vs. Real Migration

What's happening here isn't migration in the way most backyard birders think of it. Species like Ruby-throated and Rufous Hummingbird follow predictable, well-mapped seasonal routes between fixed breeding and wintering grounds, a pattern covered in detail in our guide to hummingbird migration. Mexican Violetear's US and Canadian appearances look more like an extension of that same nomadic, follow-the-flowers movement already documented within its highland range, just occasionally carried far off course. None of the sources checked for this article claim to fully explain any individual far-flung record; the birds simply turn up at a feeder or flowering shrub, get photographed, and get formally accepted onto a checklist after the fact.

What to Do If One Shows Up at a Feeder

A green hummingbird with a violet ear patch and chest, seen anywhere outside of southern Texas, is worth documenting rather than just enjoying. Photographs, even a blurry phone photo, along with the date and exact location, are what state and provincial rare bird committees, the same kind of groups that reviewed and accepted the Maryland, Wisconsin, Michigan, and British Columbia records above, need in order to formally evaluate a sighting. eBird is the simplest place to log one, since a submission there can trigger review by the relevant regional records committee.

The feeder itself doesn't need to offer anything special to hold a wandering Mexican Violetear's attention. Like every other hummingbird passing through, it's looking for a reliable source of plain sugar water, not a particular brand or formula. Nectar Bliss's own mix, for what it's worth, is nothing more than pure cane sugar dissolved in warm water, the same basic solution any hummingbird on this list is already keying in on wherever a feeder happens to be kept clean and filled.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Mexican Violetear?

The Mexican Violetear (Colibri thalassinus) is a mid-sized hummingbird native to the highland forests of Mexico and Central America, identified by its shining green body, a glittering violet patch across its ear coverts, and a second violet patch across its chest, according to Audubon's field guide and Wikipedia's species entry. It was formerly grouped with a related, more southerly species under the single name Green Violetear until a 2016 taxonomic split separated them, per eBird's 2016 taxonomy update. It breeds primarily in the highlands of southern Mexico north to Nicaragua and shows up as a rare vagrant well beyond that range.

Why was Green Violetear renamed Mexican Violetear?

In 2016, the classification committees that set official bird names split the single species then called Green Violetear into two, based on consistent plumage differences between a northern population and a more southerly one. The northern population, breeding from Mexico to Nicaragua, kept the scientific name Colibri thalassinus and became Mexican Violetear; the southern population, ranging from Costa Rica through the Andes to Venezuela, became Lesser Violetear, Colibri cyanotus.

How rare is a Mexican Violetear in the US?

It is rare everywhere in the US outside of southern and central Texas, where it turns up as an uncommon but essentially annual nonbreeding visitor, mainly in fall. Outside that core Texas pattern, accepted records are genuinely unusual, including single-bird sightings as far away as Maryland, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

How do you identify a Mexican Violetear?

Look first for a shining green hummingbird with a glittering violet patch across the ear coverts and a second violet patch across the chest, not a red, orange, or pink throat. It measures roughly 3.8 to 4.7 inches long with an all-dark, nearly straight bill and a blue-green tail marked by a broad blackish band near the tip, and unlike most US hummingbirds, males and females look nearly identical.

Has a Mexican Violetear ever been recorded in Canada?

Yes. British Columbia's rare bird records committee accepted a single-day record from Port Alberni on Vancouver Island on September 4, 2014, an immature bird photographed at a backyard feeder setup. Reviewers called the record "incredible" given how far it sits from the species' normal range in the highlands of Mexico, and it followed only two previously accepted records anywhere on the US West Coast.