Stewardship Overview: Classified as a moderate conservation priority on the Partners in Flight WatchList due to population trend and localized winter distribution (Muehter 1998). A long-term population decline is evident from BBS data in the Pacific Coast populations in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and northern California for 1966-1996, but the reasons for this decline are a puzzle. Some suggest that the species has benefited from feeders and non-native flower plantings in suburban gardens, and possibly from timber harvest practices that have increased the availability of early seral habitats, but how these changes have actually affected demographics is unquantified. Given the species' association with old-growth coniferous forests in the Pacific Northwest (see Carey et al. 1991, Gilbert and Allwine 1991, Manuwal 1991, Hejl and Paige 1993) further work needs to be done to illuminate habitat relationships and causes of declines. Most aspects of management effects and needs unknown.

Species Impact: No adverse impacts to humans or other species known. An important plant pollinator, however, and co-evolved with many hummingbird flowers. Grant and Grant (1968) list 129 plant species in western U.S. that are pollinated by hummingbirds.