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Pikes/Pines | Think you have it tough on a cold Capitol Hill? Try being an overwintering hummingbird

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A female Anna’s Hummingbird visiting a feeder. Photo Credit: Brendan McGarry

When winter weather hits, I am thankful I don’t have to be outside all the time. I marvel that there are any birds left flying around in the winter, let alone small birds like hummingbirds. No matter the weather, any day on the Hill can reveal Anna’s Hummingbirds going about their lives, while we hunker down inside.

Anna’s Hummingbirds (Calypte anna) weren’t here 40 years ago in winter. They were almost exclusively a summering species in the Puget Sound basin. It wasn’t until 1976 that they were first recorded breeding in our state.

Christmas Bird Count data shows that in 1981, birders recorded 11 individual Anna’s Hummingbirds in all of Washington’s counts. In 2015, they recorded 1,763 individuals. To call them successful appears to be an understatement. And it’s not as if they expanded here from Michigan either, during the first half of the 20th century they were only breeding in Baja and Southern California (I know, sheesh, more Californians).

One of my favorite examples of cost vs. benefit in the study of animal behavior relates to hummingbirds. If you have a great big territory, but you have to spend all your time chasing off rivals, you won’t be very fit because you waste energy. Likewise, if you have a small, poor territory, you’ll get no female attention. Throughout the year I can find a delightful little ball of fury, a male Anna’s Hummingbird, patrolling his territory on any number of blocks on the Hill. All you have to do is pay a little bit of attention and listen to their rasping vocalizations, which males typically sing from a nice promontory. It pays to protect a choice feeder or some winter flowering shrubs from rivals. In one sense it could mean your absolute survival. In another it could mean the perpetuation of your genes, females infer your fitness from the quality of your territory, and then you get to mate with them. Many species of birds relax territorial squabbling during the non-breeding. Our now perpetual Annas see the need to protect what’s theirs year-round. I’ve rarely seen two birds fight so vehemently that they hit the ground fighting; I’ve seen Annas do this twice and in one instance I was actually able to pick them up while they jousted and grappled.

Male Annas aren’t involved in the care of young, so they spend a lot of energy trying to impress multiple females. Besides chirruping and chasing off interlopers, males of the species have spectacular display. They zip up over a hundred feet in the air and plummet toward the ground (and typically toward a watching female). At the end of this dive they emit a squeak or chirp that was long thought a vocalization. Careful research involving high-speed cameras and wind tunnels demonstrated this noise was actually created by air moving at high speeds over the tail feathers of the hummingbird, which flares those feathers at the last second of the dive. Anna’s Hummingbirds will repeat this display over and over, hovering momentarily in front of their intended audience before looping back up to dive again, often orienting their brilliant gorget (the bit on their throat and face that’s iridescent) to reflect sunlight. I’ve watched them do this on all but the worst of days; it must be worth all the effort.

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A male Anna’s Hummingbird flashes his gorget just after displaying. Photo Credit: Brendan McGarry

I think particularly of small birds this time of year mainly because when you’re small, your body can’t store lots of energy. Anna’s Hummingbirds weigh less than a nickel, and have insane metabolisms that require they consume at least their body weight in nectar and insects (the equivalent of us taking in at least 150-300,000 calories a day). Finding enough food is a serious issue. Another issue is that they burn so much energy that sleeping and/or colder temperatures poses problems. What do we do when our phone’s battery is about to die or we want to save the charge for later? You shut it down for a bit. Going from an amazingly high body temperature of 107, Annas’s body temperatures will fall down as low 48 degrees in a state of suspended animation we call torpor. Many animals have been discovered to go into this state of slowed metabolism and Anna’s Hummingbirds surely rely on this all winter both at night and during extreme low temps. Realistically mortality from lack of food or harsh conditions is part of the life of a small bird on the Hill and there’s likely quite a few hummingbirds that never wake back up.

Our Anna’s Hummingbirds are some of the most Northerly wintering hummingbirds in the world (the exception being that there are populations in Southern British Columbia) and though they are relative newcomers, I can honestly say I’m happy to have them. Unlike many species, that shy away from the urban setting, these firebrands are spreading in direct correlation with the exotic plants in our gardens and appear to be here to stay. They may be common, but they aren’t boring. They’re outside surviving on flower nectar, while we’re inside eating Dick’s cheeseburgers by the fire. Talk about tough.

Follow this link for a bit about feeding hummingbirds during the winter.

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Despite the snow, this little guy was still active. Photo credit: Brendan McGarry

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Jonathan
Jonathan
7 years ago

Thanks, great info! I have these close by and hear them all the time. I do not see the promised link to listen to their seated vocalizations… what I mostly hear is the sound being made by the female in this short video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxl3BFOpk5U

They live above a 7-foot leatherleaf Mahonia which they spend a great deal of time at. I thought this was a native plant, but it seems it’s native to China so I see what you mean about the exotics. But it at least looks like it is trying to fit in as a PNW plant.

Tatiana
Tatiana
7 years ago

Wow, amazing article and photos! Thanks Brendan.

Charlene
Charlene
7 years ago

We have four little guys or girls(I didn’t want to be rude and look) right across from Trader Joe’s on 17th and Madison. There are some strange flowering bushes that they like.

CD neighbor
CD neighbor
7 years ago
Reply to  Charlene

lol – the guys and girls are fairly easy to tell apart without looking at anything more intimate than their heads… the boys have the full throat and forehead markings of iridescent feather that look either black or magenta depending on the light. The females are more plain with just a little smudge on their chins. Immature males might look like females until their bright feathers grow all of the way in, but they show signs on their heads of getting their bright caps pretty quickly.

We just started feeding them because our neighbors who had been moved and the new folks didn’t put up a feeder. We’ve had a few residents because of our fuchsias, which had been flowering rather late into the season, but the cold snap was certainly going to end that. They are engaging little critters. It took about 5 min after sun up for them to find the feeder the first day I put it out.. On the couple of really cold days we had a little male hang out pretty much all day long about 10 feet away on the leaf of a bamboo plant keeping an eye on “his” food. Poor little girl hummingbird had to risk is wrath or sneak in the few times he was gone.

Betty
Betty
7 years ago

Great article! I’m fascinated by these guys. There are so many hummingbirds on Capitol Hill (and elsewhere) that I am often very distracted while taking a walk. I’ve pointed out their diving displays (most prominent in February and October) to numerous folks who had no idea what was going on right above their heads! They dive at around 70mph, which is damn impressive. Once you can pick out the telltale diving “click” sound, you’ll start to recognize it all over the neighborhood.

Charlene, are you referring to camellia bushes? They love to perch in there. They also love to nest in holly trees due to the natural thorny defense built right in. Hummingbirds start laying eggs a full month or so than all the other birds so you’ll see them in full nesting mode by early February.

George Vye
7 years ago

We have two at our feeder across from the community garden on Thomas and 10th.

bb
bb
7 years ago

I was admiring one of these little critters today at a neighbor’s feeder.

Paul Symington
7 years ago

Salvia “Hot Lips” Microphylla – Mexican native and one of their favorite flowers blooming continuously from ~April to the first solid freeze (usually December) in Seattle.

California fuschia (Zauschneria or Epilobium)- excellent humming bird flowers, blooming from ~July to November or December depending on variety.

Manzanita’s are excellent for wildlife and many (Sentinel, etc) bloom prolifically in December, Jan and Feb providing winter flowers.

None of these plants require summer irrigation because they’re native to Mexico, California and Oregon.

Charlene
Charlene
7 years ago

The little flowers that they like are the purple rosemary ones. We have a huge holly tree(12 feet) right out our back door, so I’ll keep a watch out and take photos with a longggg lens so I don’t disturb them. February should be interesting

Jen33
Jen33
7 years ago

What a nice read and reminder of the urban wildlife right under our noses! I’ve spent many years watching these little creatures throughout the seasons outside my kitchen and dining room windows. I still find it mind boggling that they winter here! Sadly, their time on our block is likely limited as a developer has plans to cut down all the holly trees that divide our property as well as the camellia. It’s great to hear that there’s a solid ecosystem in Capitol Hill that they can rely on. In the meantime, I’ve been loading up on little feeders so there’s a food source when the time comes for them to move on.

Melissbian
Melissbian
7 years ago

I think there are a nesting pair or two on Bellevue between Olive and Pine–there are a couple of holly trees there, and my feeders, a block or so down, get up to 5 at a time. One adult male, very vigilant, a few females, and one small juvenile male, I think.

I put a heater on the feeder outside my kitchen window–a repurposed brew belt, that only gets to about 68. It’s very popular–they gorge.