Anna's Hummingbird territorial display

Anna's Hummingbird singing, Cooper Mountain Nature Park, Beaverton, Oregon. February 15, 2013 by Greg Gillson

Anna's Hummingbirds rival Great Horned Owls for earliest nesting bird in the Pacific Northwest. Unlike other hummingbirds, this resident year-round species is the only one regular in the United States in winter (a resident race of Allen's Hummingbird lives on the Santa Barbara islands group off southern California) Many Anna's Hummingbirds lay eggs in February in the Pacific NW. The males don't help with nesting duties or raising of the young. They are just "trophy husbands," providing a pretty face and some DNA for the next generation.

By mid winter the males are claiming territory for their "singing." These are the only North American hummingbirds that sing. The song is an insect-like buzzy noise: "beez-zee-zee-zeeb-zee," etc. from a high perch. It's kind of like some of the starling's buzzy, squeaky song notes, but reduced in size to a large insect.

I was so happy to find a male singing recently in some winter sun. The angle was just right for the black throat feathers to refract sunlight back in a metallic rosy hue and provide some great photos in a natural (non hummingbird feeder) setting.

Another male hummingbird flew into the blackberry tangle. It didn't quite have the full breeding gorget. So, perhaps it was a younger bird. It stayed quietly inside the protection of the tangle. The singing male became more agitated and flew and behaved in a stylized way.

The territorial bird rose quickly straight up 70 feet or more--nearly out of view, like it was on an elevator, levitating, keeping it's body level to the ground. Then it dove at high speed toward the ground and angled toward the interloper in a J-shaped flight. It made a popping squeak or chirp at the lowest point of its flight quite near the invading hummingbird. Then it continued up about 20 feet and hovered in place for about 3 seconds, completing the J-shaped flight path. Then it rose again and repeated the same display flight several times. I was able to get the photo below as it hovered briefly at the end of its J-flight.

Hovering hummingbird in display flight.

The popping chirp noise in the display flight is probably made by the tail feathers. If I hadn't seen the bird and associated sound, I would not have known what it was. The sound was similar to the bark of a chipmunk or squirrel or even some kind of insect sound (if it was summer instead of winter).

At any rate, a sunny winter day, a great series of photos, and interesting behavior I had never observed before. Birding at it's best!

Victorious hummingbird has vanquished the interloper.

Anna's Hummingbird in flight

Year-round resident Anna's Hummingbird, Beaverton, Oregon, 6 November 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

Even though I recently sang the praises of the new National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds (6th Edition), it didn't help with the identification of the hummingbird outside my window. Though I knew that the hummingbird was likely an Anna's Hummingbird, the NatGeo6 hasn't changed its artwork of Costa's Hummingbirds since the first edition. Frankly, this field guide doesn't help with the separation of female Costa's and Anna's Hummingbirds.

That's why I have many field guides, and specialty guides too. No book can be all things to all people. And even if one field guide was superior, there's nothing wrong with variety.

In his book, the Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding, Kenn Kaufman has a chapter on hard-to-identify hummingbirds.

Perhaps because I rarely go to places with any hummingbirds but Rufous and Anna's, I've always had trouble with female hummingbirds of the Anna's/Costa's/Ruby-throated/Black-chinned type--in other words, hummingbirds that look very similar to the one depicted above.

So I spent some time recently observing the hummingbirds at the feeders outside my window. I practiced observing tail feather shape, facial pattern, and inner primary width--with the help of my camera. I feel a bit better prepared now in case some unexpected female hummingbird pops up (as they can do in the autumn of the year). Better prepared, yes, but I still would hope that a future rare hummer at my feeder will be an easier to identify male!

Map of winter range of Anna's Hummingbird in the Pacific NW based on eBird data.

A previous post on Anna's Hummingbirds.

Anna's Hummingbird portrait

Anna's Hummingbird, Forest Grove, Oregon on 15 April 2010 by Greg Gillson.

 

This afternoon I decided to shoot some photos at the hummingbird feeder. I'm still trying to get good photos of full adult male Rufous and Anna's Hummingbirds. And, well, I'm still trying....

Instead I got photos of this Anna's Hummingbird. It may actually be a recently-fledged bird. The fresh plumage of the head feathers show crisp gray borders.

My recent bird photos (except for some digiscoped ones) are taken with my Canon 100-400mm image stabilized lens. This allows me to hand-hold the camera and get very good photos. However, today I put the camera on the tripod. This allows very sharp photos at much lower shutter speeds than I can take hand-holding.

This photo is cropped to less than 25% of full frame to show the feather details (click on photos to see full size). The lens was only zoomed about 2/3 of full (285 mm), f7.1, 1/1000 second, ISO 400, exposure compensation -0.3.

In the backyard... Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird, San Diego County, California, on 31 October 2008 by Greg Gillson.

 

Many backyard birders are beginning to discover that Anna's Hummingbirds are year-round residents west of the Cascades in the Pacific Northwest.

This resident hummingbird was formerly confined to California and northen Baja California. The first Oregon record was in 1944. By the 1960's it was established as a regular breeder, primarily in SW Oregon. The range expansion really took off in the 1980's and birds are now regular (and still increasing) north to southern British Columbia and, rarely, SE Alaska. It has also expanded into Arizona, where it is now common in larger towns.

The causes of the expansion of this hummingbird has not been studied, but is thought to be due to plantings of flowering shrubs. Anna's Hummingbirds are most common in the Pacific NW in larger towns with more winter-flowering landscaping. They have been less common in smaller rural communities, though they are increasing rapidly now into these areas as well.

Male Anna's "sing" all year long, but especially from December to April, the breeding season. The song is a long series of insect-like buzzes and clicks (like a miniature starling!). Nests are built and eggs laid as early as January, though some birds nest as late as April. The nest is the size of a walnut shell half, covered in spider silk and lichens. The eggs are the size of coffee beans and the tiny chicks are hatched naked.

Anna's Hummingbirds are quite large compared to the only common hummingbirds within its range in the Pacific NW. Anna's are all green on the upperparts, including the base of the tail, which is rusty on Rufous and Allen's hummingbirds. Additionally, the sides are green or gray on Anna's, but pink or cinnamon on Rufous and Allen's.

Anna's barely crosses east of the Cascades and is huge compared to the tiny Calliope Hummingbird. In comparison to Black-chinned Hummingbird, the male Anna's has it's whole head and throat amethyst-pink, while the male Black-chinned is mostly (you guessed it) black chinned. The crown of female Black-chinned is gray, while the crown of Anna's is green.

For information on feeding hummingbirds, see a previous article, telling how to make hummingbird nectar.

Frozen feeders

We've reached five days in a row now where the temperatures west of Portland, Oregon have not reached above freezing. Water pipes are freezing and people are really bundled up. Clouds have rolled in this Saturday morning, and snow and freezing rain are in the forecast as temperatures rise. After today, rain is the forecast every day for a week.

The photo above is from yesterday, Friday. We have a resident Anna's Hummingbird at our feeder. She defends it from another female and an occasional first-year male. But in this weather the feeders freeze solid in about 4 hours.

The Anna's Hummingbirds are the earliest risers at our feeders, coming in for a drink as soon as there is an orange glow in the eastern sky (as seen in the photo above). They also get a drink at dusk, long after the other birds have left the seed feeders.

How do you keep the feeders from freezing in this weather? Some people hang their feeders near a porch light with a heat lamp in it. In our case, we bring the feeder in at night and put it out before dawn. To keep it from freezing during the middle of the day? We have two feeders and switch them off every few hours as they freeze.

Anna's Hummingbirds are fairly hardy, but like many birds can't survive too many days without liquid water. During these freezing spells, liquid water is more important than food--for all birds.

For more on feeding hummingbirds see the earlier article Bird feeding... Hummingbirds.

Bird feeding... Hummingbirds

Female Anna's Hummingbird, Rood Bridge Park, Hillsboro, Oregon on 13 March 2009 by Greg Gillson.

 

The joy of hummingbird watching can be yours quite inexpensively. The Pacific NW has 6 regular species of hummingbirds. Rufous Hummingbirds arrive along the coast in February, and the other inland migrant species return by April. In northern California and from there northward to British Columbia west of the Cascades, the Anna's Hummingbird is a year round resident. It is even found through the year in several towns east of the Cascades with flowering ornamental plants.

Hummingbird nectar is simple: 4 parts water plus 1 part sugar.

Bring water nearly to a boil, then stir in normal table sugar. Make sure all the sugar dissolves. Allow to cool to room temperature. Then fill your hummingbird feeder and hang.

Some tips and myth debunking:

1) Empty the feeder and clean and wash every 3-5 days. Bring down the feeder immediately if the water becomes cloudy (bacteria) or grows dark mold. Use hot soap and water to clean your feeder. If necessary, soak feeder in a mild bleach solution to remove all mold from feeder. Rinse very well before refilling.

2) Fill feeders only full enough to last 2-3 days (bacteria will grow in 3 days if in sun or hot weather). The sugar solution you make will last in the refrigerator a week or two for refills.

3) Never use honey in your hummingbird feeder. The microbes that grow in honey when it goes bad are fatal to hummingbirds.

4) Red food coloring may or may not be bad for hummingbirds, but is totally unnecessary. Most hummingbird feeders have red on them. Do not use food coloring.

5) Feeding birds, including hummingbirds, will not over-power a bird's genetic code to migrate. Remember, Anna's Hummingbirds are year round residents in much of the Pacific NW and can survive several days of snow and freezing weather. Despite all the time they spend at your nectar feeder, the main diet of hummingbirds is insects.

6) Bring hummingbird feeders in at night in subfreezing weather, or hang near a porch bulb to keep it from freezing. But remember, hummingbirds feed most often at dawn and dusk. So wait until dark to take down, and put back up before it becomes light in the morning.

7) Finally, in case you ever were tempted to believe..., no, hummingbirds do not migrate on the backs of geese.