Cornell's Birds of North America remarks of the Black-chinned Hummingbird that no superlatives apply. It is not the biggest, the smallest, the most colorful, etc. Nonetheless, we simply like 'em. This great little bird spends its winters down along the western coast of Mexico (as we all wish we did). And explodes upward starting in late March. Although the range maps for this bird seem to isolate it to the coast and central western states from Mexico to Canada, the eBird maps (see below the fold) seem to show sightings all throughout the West. And these guys breed fast -- check out the video from Audubon's Starr Ranch below showing the entire process from egg to fledge below:
Look below the fold to see how the birds are moving north this spring.
As you can see, at the end of March of this year, we were only starting to see the Black-chins were just starting to peak across the border with Mexico:
But as of today, they're all over the West:
