South American Hummingbirds: Species & Where to See Them

The hummingbird at your feeder this summer is one of a handful of species that nest in the United States. Travel south of Panama and that handful becomes hundreds. South America is the true home of the hummingbird family. It holds most of the world's species, the biggest and the strangest of them, and some that have only just been discovered.

This guide covers how many hummingbirds live in South America, why the continent has so many, the habitats they depend on, the species worth knowing, and the best places to see them for yourself.

Quick answers

How many hummingbird species are there? 366 species in 112 genera, according to the International Ornithological Committee's world list.
How many live in South America? About 290. Counts vary slightly between checklists.
Which country has the most? Colombia, with about 165 species. Ecuador is second with about 132.
Where is hummingbird diversity highest? In the Andes of northwestern South America, especially the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador.
Do they live anywhere outside the Americas? No. Living hummingbirds are found only in the Western Hemisphere.

How many hummingbird species live in South America?

There are 366 recognized hummingbird species in the world. About 290 of them occur in South America, which means roughly four out of every five hummingbird species can be found on a single continent.

They are not spread evenly. Almost half of all hummingbird species live in the tropical belt within about 10 degrees of the equator. That band runs straight through Colombia, Ecuador, northern Peru and the Amazon, and it is where the numbers climb highest.

For comparison, the eastern United States has exactly one breeding hummingbird, the Ruby-throated. A single cloud forest lodge in Ecuador can have about a dozen species visiting the same feeders.

Hummingbird species by country

These are approximate species counts for each South American country. Totals differ a little between checklists and change as new species are described or split.

Country	Approximate hummingbird species
Colombia	165
Ecuador	132
Peru	124
Venezuela	100
Bolivia	83
Brazil	81
Guyana	39
Argentina	36
Suriname	35
French Guiana	32
Paraguay	20
Chile	10
Uruguay	6

Ecuador stands out. It is about the size of Colorado, yet it holds roughly 132 species, more than a third of all the hummingbirds on Earth.

Why does South America have so many hummingbirds?

The short answer is time and mountains.

A large study of the hummingbird family tree, published in Current Biology in 2014, found that hummingbirds split from their closest relatives, the swifts and treeswifts, about 42 million years ago, probably in Eurasia. The ancestor of every hummingbird alive today reached South America about 22 million years ago. That is when, in the researchers' words, things really took off.

The Andes did the rest. As the mountains rose over the last 10 million years, they created new habitats stacked one above another: warm foothill forest, cool cloud forest, and cold high grassland above the treeline. Each band offered new flowers and new ways to make a living, and hummingbirds split into new species to fill them. About 140 species live in the Andes today.

The same study found that the process is not finished. Hummingbirds are still diversifying, and the researchers described the family's radiation as far from complete.

Where South American hummingbirds live

Hummingbirds in South America live almost everywhere there are flowers, from sea level to above 14,000 feet. These are the main habitats.

Andean cloud forest

Cloud forest is the richest hummingbird habitat on Earth. It grows on the slopes of the Andes, roughly 3,000 to 9,000 feet up, where clouds roll in most afternoons and the air stays cool and damp. Mosses, orchids and flowering shrubs cover everything, and something is in bloom almost all year. This is where you find sylphs, coronets, sunangels, incas and racket-tails, often a dozen or more species in one patch of forest.

Páramo and puna

Above the treeline lies the high, open grassland called páramo in the northern Andes and puna farther south. Nights are often freezing. The hummingbirds here are tough, compact birds such as hillstars, which feed on low shrubs and survive cold nights by dropping into deep torpor.

Amazon lowlands

The Amazon basin is warm, wet and enormous. Many of its hummingbirds are hermits, a group of mostly brown and green species that keep to the shaded forest understory. Many have long, curved bills shaped for the curved flowers they feed on.

The Chocó

The Chocó is a strip of very wet forest along the Pacific side of Colombia and northwestern Ecuador. It is one of the rainiest places in the world and is known for species found almost nowhere else, such as the Velvet-purple Coronet and Empress Brilliant.

Brazil's Atlantic Forest

The Atlantic Forest runs along Brazil's eastern coast and inland. It is a separate forest from the Amazon, with many birds found only there. Only about 10 percent of its original extent remains, which makes what is left especially important for the hummingbirds that depend on it.

Chile and Patagonia

Hummingbird diversity drops sharply in the cooler south. Chile has only about 10 species. One of them, the Green-backed Firecrown, ranges from central Chile and Argentina all the way to Tierra del Fuego, near the tip of the continent.

10 South American hummingbirds to know

1. Sword-billed Hummingbird

The Sword-billed Hummingbird is the only bird whose bill is longer than the rest of its body, not counting the tail. Its bill measures about 3 to 4.7 inches. It lives in humid montane forest and forest edge in the Andes from western Venezuela to Bolivia, at about 5,600 to 11,500 feet.

That bill lets it reach nectar in very long-tubed flowers, including a passionflower it has evolved alongside. It also creates problems. The bird cannot reach its own feathers with its bill, so it preens with its feet.

2. Southern and Northern Giant Hummingbirds

The Giant Hummingbird is the largest hummingbird in the world, about eight times the size of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. In 2024 researchers found that it is actually two species.

The Southern Giant Hummingbird breeds on the coast of Chile and migrates up into the high Andes for the nonbreeding season. Tracked birds traveled up to 5,200 miles from the Chilean coast to the Andes of Peru and back. The lead researcher called it one of the longest, if not the longest, hummingbird migrations in the world. The newly named Northern Giant Hummingbird stays in the high Andes all year. The two are as genetically different as chimpanzees are from bonobos.

3. Marvelous Spatuletail

The Marvelous Spatuletail lives in only one place on Earth: the Utcubamba Valley in northern Peru, at about 7,000 to 9,500 feet. It has just four tail feathers. In males, the outer two are long, thin wires tipped with round paddles, each paddle larger than the bird's head. Males wave them during courtship displays.

Its population is estimated at 1,000 to 2,500 birds and is declining, mainly because of burning and logging. The Huembo reserve was created to protect it, and its feeders reliably attract the species.

4. Black Metaltail

The Black Metaltail lives in the high Andes. In 2020 researchers measured one that let its body temperature fall to 3.3°C (about 38°F) overnight in torpor. That set a record low for any bird or non-hibernating mammal. It is an extreme version of the trick many hummingbirds use to survive cold nights.

5. Blue-throated Hillstar

The Blue-throated Hillstar was discovered in 2017 and formally described in 2018. It lives above 12,000 feet in the páramo of southwestern Ecuador. Scientists estimate there are only about 100 of them, and it is listed as Critically Endangered. Burning, grazing, tree plantations and mining concessions all threaten its small patch of high grassland.

6. Great Sapphirewing

The Great Sapphirewing is the second-largest hummingbird in the world. It lives in high cloud forest in the Andes and is a regular at reserves such as Yanacocha, above Quito in Ecuador.

7. Booted racket-tails

Racket-tails are tiny hummingbirds with puffs of white or buff feathers on their legs that look like boots. Males have two long outer tail feathers with paddle-shaped tips. The White-booted Racket-tail is a regular at cloud forest feeders in northwestern Ecuador.

8. Velvet-purple Coronet

The Velvet-purple Coronet is a dark, glossy hummingbird of the Chocó cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador. In good light it shows deep purple and blue, and it often raises its wings for a moment after landing.

9. Rainbow Starfrontlet

The Rainbow Starfrontlet lives in the Andes of southern Ecuador and northern Peru. Birding guides often call it one of Ecuador's most beautiful hummingbirds, with a glittering forehead and rich rufous wings.

10. Juan Fernández Firecrown

The Juan Fernández Firecrown lives only on Robinson Crusoe Island, about 400 miles off the coast of Chile. It is Critically Endangered, with an estimated 3,000 to 5,200 birds left. Loss of native trees, invasive plants and feral cats are the main threats.

Do North American hummingbirds migrate to South America?

Almost never. This is one of the most common hummingbird myths.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, the species most eastern readers see, spend the winter from southern Mexico through Central America to Panama. Smaller numbers winter in the West Indies and along the US Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Most Rufous Hummingbirds winter in Mexico.

In other words, our hummingbirds stop at about the point where South America's begin. A Ruby-throat wintering in Panama shares the country with about 59 other hummingbird species, but it does not continue on to the Andes.

The long-distance migrant of South America is the Southern Giant Hummingbird, which travels between the Chilean coast and the high Andes and never comes north at all.

Where to see hummingbirds in South America

If you want to see dozens of species in one trip, these are some of the best places to start.

Northwestern Ecuador

The cloud forests a short drive from Quito are the classic starting point.

Mindo and the Tandayapa Valley: Cloud forest lodges with feeders on the porch. About a dozen species visit the feeders at Tandayapa regularly, including the White-booted Racket-tail and Violet-tailed Sylph.
Yanacocha: A high cloud forest reserve for sunbeams, the Great Sapphirewing and pufflegs.
Milpe: Lower foothill forest with very busy feeders.
Papallacta and Antisana: High páramo at about 11,500 to 14,000 feet, home to the Ecuadorian Hillstar and Giant Hummingbird.

Northern Peru

The Huembo reserve near Pomacochas is the best place in the world to see the Marvelous Spatuletail.

Colombia

With about 165 species, Colombia has more hummingbirds than any other country. Its network of birding lodges and reserves along the Andes has grown quickly.

Southern Ecuador

The south has its own specialties, including the Rainbow Starfrontlet in stunted cloud forest and the Blue-throated Hillstar on the páramo of Cerro de Arcos.

A local guide makes a big difference. Many cloud forest species are easiest to see at reserve feeders and flowering gardens, and guides know which ones are active each season.

The threats they face

Many South American hummingbirds live in very small ranges, which makes them vulnerable. The Marvelous Spatuletail occupies a single valley. The Blue-throated Hillstar has about 100 birds on a few mountaintops. The Juan Fernández Firecrown lives on one island.

The main threats are the same across the continent: forests cleared for farming and timber, grassland burned for grazing, mining, invasive species and a warming climate that pushes mountain habitats uphill. Protected reserves, many of them supported by birding visitors, have become an important part of keeping these species around.

What this means for your backyard

The birds at your feeder are a small branch of a very large family. Most of that family lives in tropical mountains, feeding on the sucrose-rich nectar of flowers that bloom year-round.

You can give your own hummingbirds the same thing when they return in spring. NectarBloom™ is fresh nectar in a minute. No boiling, no dye. The same sugar hummingbird flowers make. One ingredient, nothing else.

Frequently asked questions

How many hummingbird species are in South America?

About 290 of the world's 366 hummingbird species occur in South America. Counts vary slightly between checklists.

Which country has the most hummingbirds?

Colombia has the most hummingbird species of any country, with about 165. Ecuador is second with about 132, and Peru is third with about 124.

What is the largest hummingbird in the world?

The Giant Hummingbird of the Andes is the largest, about eight times the size of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. In 2024 scientists found it is two species: the Southern Giant Hummingbird and the Northern Giant Hummingbird.

Which hummingbird has the longest bill?

The Sword-billed Hummingbird of the Andes has a bill about 3 to 4.7 inches long. It is the only bird whose bill is longer than its body, not counting the tail.

Do Ruby-throated Hummingbirds migrate to South America?

No. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds winter from southern Mexico through Central America to Panama, with smaller numbers in the West Indies and along the US Gulf and Atlantic coasts.

Where is the best place to see hummingbirds in South America?

The cloud forests of northwestern Ecuador, near Mindo and the Tandayapa Valley, are among the best and easiest places to reach. Colombia has the most species overall, and the Huembo reserve in northern Peru is the place to see the Marvelous Spatuletail.

Why are there so many hummingbirds in the Andes?

The rising Andes created many habitats stacked at different elevations, from foothill forest to cloud forest to high grassland. Hummingbirds diversified to fill them. About 140 species live in the Andes today, and the family is still diversifying.

Are any South American hummingbirds endangered?

Yes. The Blue-throated Hillstar of Ecuador and the Juan Fernández Firecrown of Chile are both Critically Endangered, and the Marvelous Spatuletail of Peru has a small, declining population.