Florida Hummingbird Sightings
It is still common to find documents that say that only ruby-throated hummingbirds are present in Florida. However, according to the official Florida state bird list, a list of modern bird species that have definitely been sighted in Florida, there have actually been ten species documented. Those species are: the broad-billed hummingbird, the buff-bellied hummingbird, the Bahama woodstar, the ruby-throated hummingbird, the black-chinned hummingbird, the Anna’s hummingbird, the Calliope hummingbird, the broad-tailed hummingbird, the rufous hummingbird, and the Allen’s hummingbird.
The following statistics were taken from the Great Backyard Bird Count website. The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that encourages bird watchers of all ages to count and report bird sightings. Although the count is only carried out on specific days, these sightings are a true indication that there are many more species of hummingbirds in Florida than the ruby-throated hummingbird.
Click on a number to find out more information about where the species were sighted.
| Species |
2009
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2008
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2007
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2006
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2005
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2004
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2003
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2002
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2001
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2000
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| Buff-bellied hummingbird |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
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| Ruby-throated hummingbird | ||||||||||
| Black-chinned hummingbird |
0
|
0
|
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| Calliope hummingbird |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
|||
| Rufous hummingbird |
0
|
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| Allen’s Hummingbird |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| Species not listed in the Great Backyard Bird Counts * Information provided by Mr. Jon S. Greenlaw, a member of the Florida Ornithological Society’s record committee. |
| BROAD-BILLED HUMMINGBIRD Cynanthus latirostrisCasual visitor, based on a single record and an earlier unverified report: a female or immature at Pensacola, Escambia Co., Dec 1953 (Weston 1965) was not verified. Attempts to collect it failed. An adult male was observed and photographed at a feeder in Pensacola during Sep 2004, thus providing the first record for the state (Bowman and Greenlaw 2006). |
| BAHAMA WOODSTAR Calliphlox evelynaeRare, irregular visitor (4 records, no recent reports; no clear seasonal pattern) from the Bahamas to areas near the southeast coast. Several have appeared in suburban gardens, remaining for weeks. Stevenson and Anderson (1994) mentioned two reports, one unverified from Hypoluxo I., Palm Beach Co., in 1983, and one in the Keys thought later to be an aberrant A. colubris. |
| ANNA’S HUMMINGBIRD Calypte annaKnown in Florida from one record, an individual subjected to exhaustive study at a Tallahassee feeder, Jan- Mar 1988, and verifiable from photographs and videotapes (N. Newfield et al., in Langridge, AB 42:425, 1988). A report of a wintering individual in Tallahassee in1994-95 was submitted to FOSRC and then withdrawn before it was reviewed. |
| BROAD-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD Selasphorus platycercusA rare winter visitor represented by five recent records in Florida, beginning with a specimen (below) of a male from Wakulla Co. in Feb 2000. All others were from the western panhandle. Dates of occurrence of records ranged from Nov-18 Apr. One unverified report involved a female banded by F Bassett in Pensacola, Escambia Co., that occurred from Nov 2000- Apr 2001 |
