During the breeding season this species occurs in a broad range of habitats from secondary succession vegetation and mature forest to parks and residential areas (Healy and Calder 2006). In the non-breeding season it occurs in a variety of habitats, including scrubland, arid thorn forest and mixed pine-oak-juniper forest (Healy and Calder 2006, Powers et al. 2018). It feeds on nectar from several different plant species, as well as on arthropod prey (Powers et al. 2018), and breeding may be timed to coincide with the flowering of food plants (Powers et al. 2018) (recorded from end of March to mid July; Healy and Calder 2006).

Selasphorus rufus is a migratory hummingbird that breeds in western North America from south-eastern Alaska (U.S.A.) through western Canada and into north-west U.S.A.. In the non-breeding season it migrates to southern California, the Gulf Coast of U.S.A. and across much of Mexico.

Conservation Actions Underway
No direct actions are known, but it is placed on the Yellow Watch List by Partners in Flight (Rosenberg et al. 2016).

Conservation Actions Proposed
Conduct targeted research to get better ideas of the population size and trends and the threats to this species. There are also a range of potential ecological questions that may require further research such as more accurately assessing the diet and population dynamics of the species, further investigating the breeding biology of the species, and investigating its ability to colonise new potential habitats (see Healy and Calder 2006).