Anna’s Hummingbird, Calypte anna

Anna’s Hummingbird, Calypte anna. Photograph taken within a residential community in Hereford, Arizona, March 2006. Photograph and identification courtesy of Bob Behrstock, Sierra Vista, Arizona (naturewideimages.com).

Anna’s Hummingbird, Calypte anna. Photographs taken in the greater Santa Barbara area, Santa Barbara, California, September 2021. Photographs courtesy of Dr. Tom Bartol, Carlsbad, California.

Anna’s Hummingbird, Calypte anna, is a member of the Trochilidae Family of Hummingbirds, which has three hundred fifty-two members placed in one hundred thirteen genera, and one of two global species of the Calypte Genus. It is named for Anna, the Duchess of Rivoli, who served as Grand-Maitresse to Empress Eugénie de Montijo in Paris from 1853 to 1870. They are known in Mexico as colibrí de Anna.

Anna’s Hummingbird is a medium-sized stocky hummingbird. They are sexually dimorphic with the females being drabber in color than the males. They are an iridescent bronzy green dorsally and grayish below. The males have a rose gorget and crown. The females have rose feathers in the center of their gorget but do not have magenta feathers on the crown. Their bill is straight and of medium length. Their tail is broad and dark. The males are known for their spectacular plumage and for their red cap of rich amethyst that covers the entire head and glitters as if dipped in molten metal. They turn their head from side to side as they sing, flashing the brilliant iridescence. The males are also known for their elaborate dive displays, in which they ascend 35 m (115 feet) and then plummet toward a female Anna’s Hummingbird or other bird. Males sing more conspicuously than any other North American hummingbird, and their songs are learned and complex.

Anna’s Hummingbirds are found in riparian woodlands, savannahs, coastal scrub, parkland, and urban and suburban environments with a variety of flowering exotic plants. They are only able to move via flight as their legs are unable to support their body weight. They move frequently following flower blooms. They consume nectar from many species of flowers, small insects, and spiders. In some regions, they are year-round residents. The females and males live separate lives and associate only for breeding. The females defend their feeding territories, construct nests, incubate the eggs, and care for the nestlings. Anna’s Hummingbird is poorly studied and very little about their behavioral patterns has been documented.

In Mexico Anna’s Hummingbird has a very limited distribution being found in northern Baja California, northern Sonora, and northwest Chihuahua and occasionally in Coahuila and Nuevo León.

Anna’s Hummingbird is the only North American hummingbird that has a rose gorget and crown which makes for a straightforward identification.

From a conservation perspective, the Anna’s Hummingbird is categorized by the IUCN as Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. This species has benefited from human development due to the addition of widely cultivated urban and suburban exotic plants and backyard hummingbird feeders.