Hummingbirds (3)

The third of the hummingbirds I am discussing, the Anna's Hummingbird, is on the move, spreading north and east. It's a West-Coast bird, common in California when I was a little boy growing up in Berkeley, a scarce bird when I lived in Northern Washington in the 60s (it has now pushed all the way to Vancouver, British Columbia), a stray in winter in Arkansas (but increasing), where I lived before coming here to Tucson, where it it seems to be an abundant resident. 

The female has a mottling of red and bronze on the gorget. The short, straight, black bill on both sexes is distinctive, and through all the color changes, remains a good identification mark. The throat and crown, in the adult male, are brilliant red. Anna's tend to be sedentary so if you have a few individuals in your yard that you can identify, it's fun to watch the male gradually acquire, first on the throat and neck and crown, spots that expand into an entirely red head. Here is an adult female.

The immature male begins by getting a spot on either side of the neck. In this picture it is showing up as a black spot, but that's because it's not reflecting from this angle, and it  is actually bright red. Note the straight short black bill.

 

Here you can see the red spot, and of course there  is another on the other side, and the two will begin moving to the center to join the red gorget you can see developing, plus there is now some red beginning on the crown.