Critter: Lucifer hummingbird

My name is Calothorax lucifer. No, no ... no relation to that other creature of a similar name. I am a Lucifer hummingbird. My name means "light bearer." It's the Latin translation of the Greek word "phosphorus."

Speaking of phosphorus, my throat feathers are bright metallic purple; if you saw them, you might think they're glowing. The females of our species lack that decoration. We all have long, decurved bills and pretty spectacular bronze-green feathers on our backs, though. It's the agave nectar - it works wonders!

We're not overly proud, however. In fact, it's said that we hunch when sitting - not a good thing to do when you're only 3 1/2 or 4 inches long. And while some birds might flaunt such a long, deeply forked tail as ours, well, we try not to make other birds feel bad.

But if they get in our way, watch out. We're pretty territorial. We camouflage our nests, too, which is important since we like to have them low to the ground. We usually scope out an oak or sycamore and build a nest using plant fibers and spider silk. Then we find lichen, leaves and twigs to disguise it.

You'll have to look pretty hard to find us anyway. We've been seen in the Santa Rita and Huachuca mountain ranges and the Mule Mountains near Bisbee, but most of us live in central Mexico. And since we head back there in September, you might have to wait until April for the chance to see us here.