Bird Guide

Azure-crowned Hummingbird vs Blue-vented Hummingbird

Azure-crowned Hummingbird (Saucerottia cyanocephala)

Azure-crowned Hummingbird

Saucerottia cyanocephala

5 gForest

The azure-crowned hummingbird is 10 to 11.5 cm (3.9 to 4.5 in) long. Males weigh an average of about 5.8 g (0.20 oz) and females average about 5.4 g (0.19 oz). The bills of both sexes of both subspecies have a black maxilla and a dull pink mandible with a black outer third. Within a subspecies the sexes are almost alike. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a bright metallic blue crown and females a duller blue to greenish blue crown. Both sexes have metallic bronze nape and back. They have greenish bronze to bronze green rump, uppertail coverts, and tail. Voice: One vocalization of the azure-crowned hummingbird is "a low, fairly hard, buzzy dzzzrt" that is given in flight and perched; when perched it might be "repeated steadily". It also makes a "fairly mellow, strong chipping at times run into a trill or rattle." The vocalizations of isolated subspecies S. c. chlorostephana might be different but have not been separately described.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Peter Quakenbush · CC BY 4.0
Blue-vented Hummingbird (Saucerottia hoffmanni)

Blue-vented Hummingbird

Saucerottia hoffmanni

5 gShrubland

The blue-vented hummingbird is 8 to 11 cm (3.1 to 4.3 in) long and weighs an average of 4.45 g (0.16 oz). Both sexes have a straight bill with a blackish maxilla and a coral-red mandible with a dark tip. Adult males have golden-green upperparts with coppery to purplish rump and uppertail coverts. Their underparts are dark glittering golden-green with greenish to steel blue undertail coverts. Their tail is pale steel blue and slightly forked. Adult females are similar but with a duller green lower breast and belly. Voice: The blue-vented hummingbird's song is "a repeated buzzy, squeaky phrase tzi-tzee-tzup, sometimes followed by a few lower-pitched notes, tzi-tzee-tzup ... wut-chur-up." It also makes calls described as "a high, sharp tsit or dry chit, sometimes uttered in sputtering series."

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Åsa Berndtsson · CC BY 2.0

Where you might meet both

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Azure-crowned Hummingbird and Blue-vented Hummingbird.