Anna's hummingbird
It does not migrate. That single fact is why the winter-flowering shrubs on this land matter.
In brief
Calypte anna, Trochilidae, order Apodiformes.
- Resident every month of the year
- Native to the Pacific slope of North America
- Eats nectar, small insects and tree sap
Where it lives
The Pacific coast from Baja California to British Columbia. Over the last century it has spread north and inland, following gardens, feeders and planted eucalyptus.
When you see it
Every month. It is the only hummingbird that winters this far north in any numbers, and it holds territory through the cold.
What it eats
Nectar, small insects caught in flight, and sap from wells that sapsuckers drill in tree bark.
Here
Photographed on January 11, 2021 feeding at chaparral currant, and again on January 31, 2023. A hummingbird in January needs flowers in January, and that is the connection that ties the fauna here to the flora: the currant and the manzanita are not decoration, they are the food supply.
The only hummingbird that stays
Four hummingbirds are regular in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Three of them are in Mexico by December.
Anna's does not go anywhere: it holds a territory through frost at 2,300 feet, and it sings in January.
The Motherlode foothills are mild for the elevation, and the bird knows it.
René Lesson named it in 1829 for Anna Masséna, Duchess of Rivoli.
What it drinks in January
The currant is the whole argument. A bird that does not migrate has to eat every day of the year, and in January almost nothing on this land is open. Chaparral currant flowers from late October, which is why the two of them are photographed together.
And in April
By spring the orchard has taken over. This one is working a cherry bloom, which is the same trade the honey bees are making a few weeks later.
By Yggdrasil Springs
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Chaparral currant
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