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Status: Population size: 2 million Photo by Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

Buff-bellied Hummingbird
(Amazilia yucatanensis)

This species was on the 2002 WatchList, but is not on the 2007 WatchList. Please refer to http://web1.audubon.org/science/species/watchlist/techReport.php for information on the 2007 WatchList.

Identification
An overall green hummingbird with a tan lower breast and belly. Slightly decurved, its bill is mostly orange-red with a black tip. Young birds are similar to adults, but their color is diffuse with a much-reduced pale belly. At all ages, the tail is rufous.

Distribution and Population Trends
A hummingbird of shrubby thickets and woodlands, the Buff-bellied Hummingbird is the only breeding hummingbird in south Texas. South of the U.S. - Mexican border, the Buff-bellied Hummingbird breeds in Mexico around the Gulf Coast to the Yucatan Peninsula and south to Guatemala.

There is little information regarding population estimates and trends in Texas and Mexico.

Ecology
The extended breeding season can start as early as March or as late as September. Female lays and incubates 2 white eggs. Female cares for young responsibility until fledging, but timing is not known. Texas population is migratory. Most individuals move south into Mexico for the winter, but a few move north to the central Gulf Coast to spend the winter at local bird feeders.

Threats
Large areas of native brushy habitat were cleared from 1951 to the early 1970's in south Texas for development and agriculture. The population presumably declined because of this and other human activities in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, but no data exist to support this hypothesis. Today, Buff-bellied Hummingbirds persist in small numbers throughout their Texas range, becoming more common further south in Mexico.

Conservation
Human activity since the 1950's has increased dramatically in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Because of this, there is an increasing need for the establishment of preserves to curb the growing effects of development and habitat destruction.

References
Chavez-Ramirez, F., and A. Moreno-Valdez. 1999. Buff-bellied Hummingbird (Amazilia yucatanensis). In The Birds of North America, No. 388 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.

Kaufman, K. Lives of North American Birds. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996.