West Virginia's hummingbird checklist runs to four species — a shorter list than most of its neighbors, but two of the entries are genuinely remarkable. One summer, a species that calls Panama and Central America home turned up at a feeder in Terra Alta and made state wildlife history. The other rarities are thin enough that West Virginia's own bird records committee treats every report with real scrutiny.

This guide sorts out which hummingbird you're actually looking at, whether that's a backyard regular in July or a genuine long shot in November. For feeder setup, native plants, and pest-safe care, see our how-to-attract guide. For exact arrival and departure windows by region, see the West Virginia hummingbird calendar.

Species grouped by frequency of sightings and official state records committee status.

The Hummingbird You're Most Likely to See

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

West Virginia's only officially native hummingbird, and the only hummingbird native to the entire Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern US and Canada. They nest throughout the Mountain State wherever there's a mix of trees, shrubs, and open space — forest edges, hollows, farmsteads, yards, and stream corridors all qualify.

Adult males show an emerald or golden-green back and crown over grayish-white underparts, with a brilliant iridescent ruby-red throat that can look flat black until the light catches it, and a dark, distinctly forked tail. Females and immatures carry a plain whitish throat with a rounded, black-and-white-banded tail — no red at all.

West Virginia's season peaks unusually late and unusually hard — statewide checklist reports hit nearly 35% in the first week of September, the highest peak we've measured anywhere in the region, then collapse by more than two-thirds within a month. Where you are matters: Monongalia and Wood counties tend to run about a week behind the rest of the state. See the West Virginia hummingbird calendar for the full regional breakdown.

Ruby-throated vs. Black-chinned: Where Identification Actually Breaks Down

Adult male Ruby-throated and Black-chinned Hummingbirds are usually easy to tell apart in good light — one shows a red gorget, the other a black one edged in violet-purple. But Cornell Lab's own species comparison is blunt about the rest: females and immatures of the two species are close to identical in the field. The one reliable field mark on a perched bird is wing-to-tail proportions — Ruby-throated has a longer tail that extends visibly past the wingtips at rest, while Black-chinned has longer wings that reach the tip of the tail or extend just slightly beyond it. Some birders also watch for tail-pumping: Black-chinned habitually pumps its tail while hovering, Ruby-throated tends to hold its tail still.

Black-chinned is a genuine but accidental West Virginia record, with a documented sighting in Jefferson County running from October 2006 into January 2007. So an unusual-looking female hummingbird here is worth a second look, even though Ruby-throated remains the far more likely explanation by a wide margin.

West Virginia Hummingbirds in Winter

Rufous Hummingbird — the regular fall visitor

West Virginia's most frequently recorded rare visitor, and the species most likely to turn up east of the Rockies as a vagrant, anywhere in the country. It was added to West Virginia's official checklist in 2021, mostly appearing during fall migration or into early winter. It's genuinely thin here, though — most weeks statewide represent only a handful of checklists, and December is actually the single best month in our entire dataset, even though "best" still means a small trickle rather than anything resembling a real wave.

Adult males are unmistakable — fiery coppery-orange overall with an iridescent orange-red throat — and famously aggressive, chasing off other hummingbirds regardless of size difference. Females and immatures are trickier: green-backed above, with rufous-washed flanks and a rusty patch at the base of the tail.

If You're Lucky: West Virginia's Rarest Hummingbird

Mexican Violetear

One summer, a hummingbird that calls Panama and Central America home turned up at a feeder in Terra Alta, in Preston County — the first time the species had ever been recorded in the Mountain State, per the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources' own account. A bird that small and light can be blown hundreds of miles off course in a single storm without much effort at all, and that's the leading explanation for how it ended up so far from home.

Mexican Violetear is genuinely distinctive among North American hummingbirds in one specific way: the sexes look alike. Both males and females are shining green overall, with a glittering violet-blue patch on the sides of the neck and chest, and a blue-green tail crossed by a bold black band. It's also noticeably larger than West Virginia's other hummingbirds — 4 to 5 inches long with a mostly straight, black bill, compared to Ruby-throated's roughly 3.5 inches.

This species is formally known as Mexican Violetear today, but older birding records — including West Virginia's own — sometimes refer to it by its former name, Green Violet-eared Hummingbird, from before taxonomists split the old "Green Violetear" into separate Mexican and Lesser Violetear species.

West Virginia Hummingbirds at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

How many species of hummingbirds are in West Virginia?

Four species have been documented in West Virginia. Ruby-throated is the only regular breeder, Rufous is the regular fall/winter visitor, and Black-chinned and Mexican Violetear are both genuine, individually documented rarities.

Are there hummingbirds in West Virginia in winter?

Rarely, but genuinely. Rufous is the regular fall/winter visitor, thin but present most years from October through December, with December typically the best month. True winter accidentals are vanishingly unlikely in any given year, but West Virginia has real documented exceptions, including records running into January.

How do I tell Ruby-throated and Black-chinned Hummingbirds apart?

Adult males are the easy case: Ruby-throated shows a red gorget, Black-chinned shows a black throat with a thin violet-purple band at the base. Females and young are effectively inseparable in the field — Cornell Lab points to wing-to-tail proportions as the one useful field mark.

What was the hummingbird found in Terra Alta, West Virginia?

A Mexican Violetear (formerly called Green Violet-eared Hummingbird) — a species normally found from Mexico to Nicaragua. It was the first record of the species ever confirmed in West Virginia, and it's believed to have been blown far off its normal range by a storm.

What is that large green hummingbird with a blue patch on its neck?

Almost certainly a Mexican Violetear, West Virginia's rarest documented hummingbird. Both sexes look alike — shining green overall with a glittering violet-blue patch on the neck and chest, larger than the state's other hummingbirds. It's an extraordinary sighting if confirmed; report it to the West Virginia Bird Records Committee with photos if possible.

For feeder setup, nectar ratios, and native plants that support these species, head back to our how-to-attract-hummingbirds-in-West-Virginia guide. For region-by-region arrival and departure windows, see the West Virginia hummingbird calendar.

Sources

• West Virginia Bird Records Committee, Brooks Bird Club. Source for official species status and accepted rarity records.
• West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. Source for the Terra Alta Mexican Violetear record.
• All About Birds, Ruby-throated Hummingbird Identification and Similar Species (Cornell Lab of Ornithology). Source for plumage detail and the Ruby-throated/Black-chinned wing-to-tail field mark.
• All About Birds, Rufous Hummingbird Identification (Cornell Lab of Ornithology). Source for Rufous plumage detail.
• Audubon Field Guide, Mexican Violetear. Source for Mexican Violetear size and plumage detail.
• Birds of the World, Mexican Violetear (Cornell Lab of Ornithology). Source for taxonomic history (former "Green Violetear" name and 2016 species split).

Why We Created This

Pop's Birding has been helping hummingbird lovers for three generations. One of the questions our customers ask most often is "What hummingbirds are actually in my state?" — and for West Virginia, most answers online either skip the rarities entirely or repeat unverified claims alongside genuinely documented ones without distinguishing the two. We built this page to give a direct, sourced answer: the complete, officially documented list, with real identification detail for every species — including telling the Terra Alta story properly, since it's a genuinely remarkable piece of the state's birding history that deserves more than a passing mention.

How We Created This

We checked West Virginia's species list against the state's own bird records committee rather than repeating what other sites assumed. Ruby-throated and Rufous both show a real, measurable presence in eBird's statewide data, even though Rufous is genuinely thin; Black-chinned and Mexican Violetear are both individually documented single records, verified against primary sources rather than secondary summaries — the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources' own account for the Terra Alta bird, and an independently corroborated Jefferson County record for the Black-chinned sighting. A commonly repeated claim about a Broad-tailed Hummingbird record doesn't appear anywhere in the records committee's own archive, so it isn't included here.

For arrival and departure timing by region, that's a separate, original analysis on our West Virginia hummingbird calendar page.