One of the great things about living in Southeastern Arizona is that you see birds that come across the Mexican border here and rarely anywhere else.
One of these is the Magnificent Hummingbird, or so it was called the two times when I saw it in Ramsey Canyon, where 14 other species of hummingbirds can be found. The canyon, a birders’ paradise, is located about 80 miles southeast of Tucson.
In 2017, the bird’s name was changed to Rivoli’s Hummingbird, a name by which it went until 1983 — when ornithologists named it Magnificent from Rivoli.
The name was changed back because ornithologists split the Magnificent into two species, the Rivoli and the Talamanca. DNA research is causing a lot of that to happen these days.
Both of these hummingbirds live in mountainous pine-oak forests and shady canyons, like Ramsey. But supposedly the Talamanca doesn’t come farther north than Panama.
Pat Bean is a retired journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is a wondering-wanderer, avid reader, enthusiastic birder, Lonely Planet Community Pathfinder, Story Circle Network board member, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining.
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