Anna's Hummingbird

Identification

The male is the only North American hummingbird whose iridescence covers the crown as well as the throat: a rose-red hood running from the bill over the eye and down onto the chest, flashing copper-pink when he turns into the light and going dull brown-black when he does not. Females and immatures are greyish green above and pale below, with a small red patch at the centre of the throat that many birds simply never show, and clean white tips to the outer tail feathers. A pale line above and behind the eye, plus the complete absence of rufous in the tail, are the quickest ways to separate females from Rufous and Allen's.

The display dive is worth planning a trip around. A male climbs roughly 40 m, hangs for a beat, then drops in a controlled fall and snaps his outer tail feathers together at the bottom, producing a loud, sharp chirp that is mechanical rather than vocal — the sound is made by the feathers, not the throat. He also sings, a scratchy, buzzy, electric crackle delivered in every month of the year, which is unusual among hummingbirds; most vocalise only in the breeding season. Anna's does not migrate. Pairs hold territories through the winter and nesting in coastal California can begin as early as late December, making it the earliest-nesting bird in the United States. Insects taken in flight or picked off foliage make up a large share of the diet, and the bird regularly visits sapsucker wells to drink sap.

Because it stays put, Anna's is the hummingbird most people get to know as an individual. A feeder plus a winter-blooming currant, grevillea or eucalyptus will hold a bird in the same yard from November into March. Watch at dawn and dusk when feeding peaks; on a hot afternoon, check the shaded upper branches of a tall shrub, where birds sit and preen for long stretches. The range follows the Pacific slope from Baja California north to California, and has expanded steadily through Oregon, Washington and into British Columbia over the past half century.