WINTER HUMMINGBIRDS
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| Anna's Humminbird showing off its colorful crown and gorget, Famosa Slough, San Diego, CA; 4/7/2012. |
Along with the Black-chinned Hummingbird (Fri. 7/27/2012 Post), Anna's Hummingbird (Above) are pobably the most common hummers I have seen in the times I've been to the Southwest in the past few years. In fact if you see a Hummingbird somewhere inside the borders of the U.S. during the winter months, it is undoubtedly an Anna's. They reside along the Pacific Coast the entire year and will broaden their range in the winter months by extending into Mexico. I have seen many Anna's in Arizona in the winter and in California in the spring and summer.
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| Anna's Hummingbird, Riparian Preserve, Gilbert, AZ; 4/12/2012. |
To see more of my photos of Anna's Hummingbirds, check out my 4/22/2012 post about them earlier this spring:
The only other Hummingbird that could possibly be seen in the winter months is the Costa's Hummer. It will hang out in the far Southwest corner of Arizona and the southern tip of California all year round, as well as the Baja Peninsula. In the summer, they will migrate slightly north into central California and the western edge of Arizona. In the winter months it will spread south along the Pacific Coast of Mexico.
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| Val's photo of a male Costa's Hummingbird, Sonoran Desert Museum, Tucson, AZ; 12/27/2009. |
I saw a Costa's this Spring in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in the Southwest corner of Arizona, near Yuma. My photo (Below) wasn't very sharp, but Val caught an excellent close up of one at the Sonoran Desert Museum, near Tucson a couple of years ago (Above). Male Costa's have a beautiful purple gorget, which wings out to the sides of the throat.
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| A female Costa's Hummingbird, Kofa Nat. Wildlife Refuge, Yuma, AZ, 4/6/2012. |
So unles you are are south of the border, Costa's and Anna's are likely to be the only hummers you'll see in the Winter.
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