Critically Endangered
These are the smallest bird in Chile, about 3 inches long including their beak which is around ⅔ of an inch. There is thought to be less than 600 of these, but less than 400 breeding age ones, down from more than 1500 in 2003. Habitat loss is their biggest threat. They prefer desert scrub land that is being converted to agriculture. They will eat from non-native plants, but show definite preference to native flowers.
We don't get many hummingbirds at our place. We have tried using feeders, but this little one was not very smart. I took this picture through our kitchen window. This little one was very interested in the feeders, but would only ever try to get the food through the wall of the feeder, not through the actual openings. I finally took the feeder down because I felt so bad watching it bonk into the glass over and over, sure that this time it could get to the food. Hopefully it was better with flowers.
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