New Mexico's documented hummingbird list runs to seventeen species — trailing only Texas's nineteen and Arizona's eighteen among its immediate neighbors, and well ahead of Colorado's twelve, Oklahoma's eleven, and Utah's ten to eleven. Six species breed here, four are migrants passing through or a genuine winter visitor, and seven are documented rarities, ranging from a handful of decades-old records to species with dozens of accepted sightings.

This page's job is identification and confidence — which hummingbirds you're actually looking at in New Mexico, and how sure you can be about it.

All 17 documented New Mexico hummingbird species, grouped by tier — statewide eBird data, 2016–2025, cross-checked against the New Mexico Bird Records Committee's own accepted-record history.

The Hummingbirds You're Most Likely to See

Black-chinned Hummingbird

New Mexico's most common hummingbird by a real margin — its statewide eBird frequency peaks near 40% in late July, the highest of any species tracked here. It's a genuine, widespread breeder present April through September, common across nearly every habitat type the state has to offer: rivers, towns, deserts, and foothills alike. It isn't on the New Mexico Bird Records Committee's Review List at all — a fully regular, non-reviewable species.

Quick ID: Males show a velvety black throat, only revealing a thin purple band in direct light — otherwise it just looks solid black. Females are plain and pale-throated, best told apart by white-tipped outer tail feathers and a small white spot behind the eye.

Broad-tailed Hummingbird

New Mexico's second most common species, statewide frequency peaking near 31% in late August. It's a genuine high-elevation breeder in mountain ranges nearly statewide above roughly 6,000 feet, present early April through September — New Mexico holds an estimated 17% of the species' entire global breeding population.

Quick ID: Males have a rose-magenta throat and produce a loud, distinctive metallic wing trill in flight — often heard before seen. Females show green throat spotting rather than solid color, with a pale eyering that helps separate her from similar species.

Broad-billed Hummingbird

A narrowly localized breeder, confirmed regular only in Guadalupe Canyon, Hidalgo County, in the state's far southwest bootheel — the New Mexico Bird Records Committee reviews reports from everywhere else in the state, since it's genuinely rare outside that one canyon system.

Quick ID: Named for the field mark that settles it at a glance — a bright red bill tipped in black. Males show a shimmering sapphire-blue throat over an emerald-green body; females are duller, golden-green above and gray below, but carry that same diagnostic red-and-black bill.

Lucifer Hummingbird

Another bootheel specialty — a small breeding population confined to the Peloncillo Mountains' Clanton, Skeleton, and Post Office canyons. Like Broad-billed, it's reviewable everywhere else in the state, since its real range here is that one mountain range.

Quick ID: A small hummingbird with a long, curved bill unlike any other New Mexico species. Males show a green back, a long forked tail, and an iridescent purple gorget that flares outward at the sides. Females are buffy below with a dusky ear patch and pale eyebrow stripe.

Rivoli's Hummingbird

A localized sky-island summer breeder — New Mexico sits at the documented northern limit of this species' entire breeding range, with nesting confined to a handful of the state's southwestern mountain ranges.

Quick ID: One of the largest hummingbirds in New Mexico. Males are dark overall with a glittering green throat and a violet crown visible in good light; females are green above and grayish below, with limited pale tips in the tail corners rather than the bold white outer-tail markings smaller species show.

Violet-crowned Hummingbird

New Mexico's rarest true breeder — a state-listed threatened species, with a documented population of roughly a dozen individuals at Guadalupe Canyon, nesting from mid-June into September, timed to match the bloom of Schott's agave.

Quick ID: Unmistakable once you know it — a bright violet-blue crown on an otherwise plain gray-and-white bird, with a distinctive red-based bill. No other New Mexico hummingbird combines a colored crown with such plain, pale underparts.

New Mexico's Migrants and Winter Visitors

This tier is really two different stories in New Mexico. Rufous, Calliope, and Ruby-throated Hummingbird pass through as migrants, most visible in late summer and fall — none of them breed or winter here. Anna's Hummingbird is the genuine exception, showing a real winter-only presence rather than a migration pattern.

Rufous Hummingbird

A conspicuous late-summer and fall migrant, statewide frequency peaking near 30% in late August — nearly as common at that time of year as the state's two resident breeders. New Mexico lies well south and east of Rufous's actual breeding range, so every bird here is passing through on one of the longest migrations of any hummingbird in North America, not settling in to nest.

Quick ID: Males glow with a fiery orange-red throat and a coppery-orange body — one of the most recognizable hummingbirds in North America. Females and immatures are green above with rusty flanks and rufous patches at the base of the tail.

Calliope Hummingbird

A real but much thinner migrant presence than Rufous — statewide frequency peaks near 7% in late July. Its actual breeding range sits farther north and west, so New Mexico sightings are mid-to-late-summer and fall birds moving through rather than any local population.

Quick ID: North America's smallest breeding hummingbird, with a hunched posture and short tail. Males have a unique streaked, ray-like magenta throat unlike any other species' solid gorget. Females are tiny even by hummingbird standards, with very little rufous in the tail.

Anna's Hummingbird

The one real winter bird in this tier — a genuine winter-only range expansion into New Mexico, peaking in January, not a breeder here. It's still an NMBRC Review species, meaning every report is documented individually even though the winter pattern itself is well established.

Quick ID: The only North American hummingbird with a fully colored crown as well as throat — males glow rose-pink from head to throat. Females show a central patch of rose-red spotting on an otherwise plain throat, with a stocky, broad-tailed build.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

The thinnest of New Mexico's four migrant/winter-tier species — a scarce, possibly regular fall transient across the state's eastern plains. The New Mexico Bird Records Committee's own Seventh Report describes it plainly: 58 accepted records, every one dated September or October, and no accepted winter records at all despite occasional winter sighting reports.

Quick ID: Males flash a brilliant ruby-red throat in good light, but it reads as solid black most of the time — the forked black tail is the more reliable everyday mark. Females have a plain whitish throat and a more rounded, white-tipped tail.

If You're Lucky: The Southwest Rarities

Seven more species have accepted New Mexico records, but they split into two genuinely different categories. Allen's, Blue-throated Mountain-gem, and Costa's Hummingbird each have dozens of accepted records and a real recurring seasonal pattern. The other four — Berylline, Cinnamon, Mexican Violetear, and White-eared Hummingbird — have only a handful of records apiece, and two of them (noted honestly below) have thinner sourcing than the rest of this page.

Allen's Hummingbird

26 accepted NMBRC records through 2022 — the committee's own report notes that almost all of them have resulted from banding work since 1990, not casual sightings. The most recent: a juvenile male in the Peloncillo Mountains, Hidalgo County, in the summer of 2020.

Quick ID: Males glow with a reddish-orange throat and typically a solid green back, giving a mixed orange-and-green look. Females and immatures are green above with rufous-washed flanks and rufous in the tail — plumage so close to female Rufous Hummingbird that Cornell rates the two "very difficult to separate" without an in-hand tail measurement.

Blue-throated Mountain-gem

Roughly 78 accepted NMBRC records, concentrated in the sky-island and bootheel canyons near confirmed breeding populations just across the Arizona and Texas borders. The committee's own language — "a rare summer-fall visitor... with no confirmed breeding records to date" — is specific and worth noting: some popular sites loosely describe this species as a New Mexico breeder, but NMBRC does not.

Quick ID: One of the largest hummingbirds likely to show up in New Mexico. Males show a brilliant blue throat patch and bold white facial stripes on an otherwise dark head; both sexes have a distinctive squared, white-tipped tail that's a reliable mark even at a distance.

Costa's Hummingbird

80 accepted NMBRC records through 2022 — the most of any reviewed New Mexico hummingbird, including 4 new records added between 2019 and 2022 alone, spread across Doña Ana, Grant, and Hidalgo counties.

Quick ID: Males show an extravagant violet-purple throat that flares out into long points at the sides, almost like a mustache. Females are compact and plain-faced, best told from other small desert hummingbirds by their short tail and a subtle grayish wash rather than the peachy or rufous tones seen on similar species.

Berylline Hummingbird

4 total accepted NMBRC records — the most recent an adult male banded near Mimbres, Grant County, in July 2006, described in the committee's report as "the first away from Hidalgo Co." Nothing new has been documented since, across a 12-year committee-report window running through 2022.

Quick ID: A medium-sized hummingbird with an overall coppery-green look — green head and chest, rufous-tinged wings and tail, and a mostly red bill with a black tip.

Cinnamon Hummingbird

A single confirmed U.S. occurrence in New Mexico, per Cornell's Birds of the World, which states plainly that only two individuals have ever strayed into the southernmost United States — one in Arizona, one in New Mexico. No recurrence has been documented.

Quick ID: Told apart from New Mexico's other rarities by its overall warm cinnamon-orange color, both above and below, rather than a green back — from behind it can suggest Buff-bellied or Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, but a front or side view showing no green chest patch at all confirms Cinnamon.

Mexican Violetear

Has an accepted New Mexico occurrence, but this page is being straightforward about the limits of what we could confirm: three dedicated research passes could not retrieve NMBRC's own accepted-record count or dates from the primary committee report. The one anchor point located — a peer-reviewed synthesis citing "NMBRC 2016" as the source documenting New Mexico's occurrence — points to a single decision around 2016 rather than an established recurring pattern, and New Mexico sits well outside this species' main U.S. vagrancy corridor along the Texas coast. Treated here as Historic/Accidental on that basis, not from a confirmed record count. 

Quick ID: A larger hummingbird than most on this list, glittering metallic green overall with a violet-blue patch across the breast and a violet ear patch that gives the species its name. Sexes look nearly identical.

White-eared Hummingbird

Confirmed as a genuine New Mexico Bird Records Committee Review species — a documentation-required rarity in the state's extreme southwestern montane canyons — but, like Mexican Violetear above, its exact accepted-record count and dates weren't independently confirmable this pass despite real effort. New Mexico's own committee treats this as a different, rarer status than neighboring Arizona, where White-eared is a confirmed regular scarce breeder — a real difference in status by state, not an inconsistency between the two pages. (No dedicated species guide exists yet, so this name isn't linked.)

Quick ID: Told at a glance by a bold white stripe behind the eye set against an otherwise dark face — visible in every plumage. Males add an emerald throat and a violet flash on the forehead in good light; the bright red, black-tipped bill shows on both sexes.

New Mexico Hummingbirds at a Glance

Statewide peak eBird frequency, 2016–2025. Costa's Hummingbird, Lucifer Hummingbird, Violet-crowned Hummingbird, Allen's Hummingbird, and Blue-throated Mountain-gem all sit at or below the ~0.15% eBird rounding floor and aren't plotted here — their real record histories are documented in the table and species write-ups above, just not visible at this statewide statistical scale.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many hummingbird species have been recorded in New Mexico?

Seventeen — more than all of its neighbors except Texas and Arizona. Six species breed in the state, four are genuine migrants or a winter visitor, and seven are documented rarities.

Which hummingbirds actually breed in New Mexico?

Six: Black-chinned and Broad-tailed Hummingbird breed widely across the state, while Broad-billed, Lucifer, Rivoli's, and Violet-crowned Hummingbird are all narrowly localized to the bootheel region in the state's far southwest corner.

Is New Mexico's most common hummingbird a summer or winter bird?

Summer. Black-chinned Hummingbird — the state's top species by eBird frequency, peaking near 40% statewide in late July — is a breeder present April through September, not a winter visitor.

Do any of New Mexico's migrant hummingbirds actually stay for winter?

Only Anna's Hummingbird shows a genuine winter pattern here, appearing as a range expansion in January. Calliope, Ruby-throated, and Rufous Hummingbird are all passage migrants, moving through New Mexico in late summer and fall rather than settling in for the cold months.

How many of New Mexico's hummingbirds are genuine rarities?

Seven. Allen's, Blue-throated Mountain-gem, and Costa's Hummingbird each have dozens of accepted records and a real recurring pattern. Berylline, Cinnamon, Mexican Violetear, and White-eared Hummingbird are far thinner — one to four total accepted records apiece.

Why We Created This Guide

Pop's Birding has been helping hummingbird lovers for three generations. One of the questions our customers ask most often is "what hummingbirds actually show up in my state" — we built this guide to give a direct, sourced answer, not a generic one. New Mexico is one of the most hummingbird-diverse states in the country, but that diversity gets flattened in most general references into one long, undifferentiated list. This page separates New Mexico's six real breeders from its four migrants and one winter visitor, and its three well-documented rarities from its four genuinely thin ones — each tier verified against the New Mexico Bird Records Committee's own record-by-record history, not just a species name on a checklist.

How We Created This Guide

Source and scope. eBird checklist data for New Mexico, 2016–2025, pulled statewide plus four representative counties — Bernalillo (Albuquerque, the state's population center), Catron (rural west-central), Grant (Silver City, near the bootheel specialty range), and Hidalgo (the extreme southwest bootheel itself, home to Broad-billed, Lucifer, and most of the state's true rarities) — cross-checked against the New Mexico Bird Records Committee's (NMBRC) own current Checklist and Review List.

How we separate a real pattern from a single well-publicized bird. A species clearing a percentage point in eBird's raw data isn't automatically a real pattern — a single well-photographed rarity can draw enough birders to create a real-looking statistic around one bird. For every species outside the state's obvious core breeders, we checked the actual weekly checklist counts behind the numbers, then cross-referenced against NMBRC's own Seventh Report, which lists exact accepted-record totals and, for many species, individual dates and locations. Allen's, Blue-throated Mountain-gem, and Costa's Hummingbird all turned out to have real, recurring multi-decade patterns backed by dozens of accepted records; Berylline and Cinnamon Hummingbird turned out to be exactly what their thin signal suggested — a handful of records or, for Cinnamon, just one.

Where the sourcing runs thin, we say so. Two species on this page — Mexican Violetear and White-eared Hummingbird — are genuinely harder to source than the other fifteen. Both are confirmed NMBRC Review species with real New Mexico occurrences, but after three dedicated research passes each, we could not retrieve the committee's own specific accepted-record count or dates from the primary report text; every retrieval path failed on access grounds, not because the information doesn't exist. Rather than guess at a count or quietly default to the safer classification without saying why, both are labeled Historic/Accidental as a conservative default and flagged here plainly. If you have access to NMBRC's earlier reports and can confirm either species' exact record history, we'd genuinely welcome the correction.

What's original here. The tiering on this page comes from NMBRC's own status codes and record-by-record documentation, not a generic "species recorded" list — and it corrects a real oversimplification we found even in our own writing elsewhere on this site, where Broad-billed, Lucifer, and Violet-crowned Hummingbird get grouped in with New Mexico's true rarities. All three are genuine, if narrowly localized, breeders confirmed by New Mexico Partners in Flight — a meaningfully different status than a species with only a handful of accepted records ever, even though all of them share the same southwestern corner of the state.

Sources

• eBird bar chart data, Cornell Lab of Ornithology — New Mexico statewide, 2016–2025.
• New Mexico Bird Records Committee, New Mexico Ornithological Society — source for every rare-species record count and status on this page.
• All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology — source for identification field marks.