Bee Hummingbird
Mellisuga helenae (Lembeye, 1850)
Spanish: Colibrí Zunzuncito
The Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) is a hummingbird in the subfamily Trochilinae (mountain gems, bees and emeralds), tribe Mellisugini (bees). It weighs about 2.2 g and its bill is 12.2 mm long. It is found only in Cuba. Its IUCN Red List status is Near threatened, with a decreasing population.
See it in the explorer eBird page ↗
At a glance
- Weight
- 2.2 g, about 2 paperclips
- Bill
- 12.2 mm
- Lives in
- Forest
- Moves
- Stays put all year
- Red List status
- Near threatened, decreasing
- Endemic
- Found only in Cuba
Its place in the family
- Family Trochilidae hummingbirds
- Subfamily Trochilinae mountain gems, bees and emeralds
- Tribe Mellisugini bees
- Genus Mellisuga
What Mellisuga share: Includes the Bee Hummingbird of Cuba, the smallest bird in the world: a male is about 5.5 cm long and weighs about 2 g. (In the weights this site uses, the Peruvian Sheartail comes out a little lighter.)
Where it lives · 2 countries
Others in the genus Mellisuga
- Vervain Hummingbird Mellisuga minima
Sources
Names: eBird/Clements Checklist (Cornell Lab of Ornithology). Groups: Dickinson & Remsen (2013) and McGuire et al. (2014). Weight, bill, habitat and movement: AVONET (Tobias et al. 2022, CC BY 4.0). Countries: BirdLife International DataZone, checked against eBird records via GBIF. Red List status and trend: BirdLife International, the IUCN Red List authority for birds.
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