Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Anna's Hummingbird

Calypte anna

Description:

Anna's Hummingbird is 3.9 to 4.3 inches (10 to 11 centimeters) long. It has a bronze-green back, a pale grey chest and belly, and green flanks. Its bill is long, straight and slender. The adult male has an iridescent crimson-red crown and throat, and a dark, slightly forked tail. Anna's is the only North American hummingbird species with a red crown. Females and juveniles have a green crown, a grey throat with some red markings, a grey chest and belly, and a dark, rounded tail with white tips on the outer feathers. These birds feed on nectar from flowers using a long extendable tongue. They also consume small insects caught in flight. A PBS documentary that first aired January 10, 2010, shows how Anna's Hummingbirds eat flying insects (at 16:45). They aim for the flying insect, then open their beaks very wide. That technique has a greater success rate than trying to aim the end of a long beak at the insect. While collecting nectar, they also assist in plant pollination. This species sometimes consumes tree sap. A recent study found that the Anna's hummingbird can shake their bodies 55 times per second while in flight. This shimmy, when done in dry weather, can shake off pollen or dirt from their feathers similar to how a wet shake by a dog removes water. This rate of shaking is the fastest of any vertebrate on earth.

Habitat:

flowering ornamentals in a backyard

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

1 Comment

JoeHartman
JoeHartman 10 years ago

Excellent shots!

DonnaPomeroy
Spotted by
DonnaPomeroy

San Mateo, California, USA

Spotted on Oct 6, 2013
Submitted on Oct 8, 2013

Related Spottings

Anna's Hummingbird Anna's Hummingbird Anna's Hummingbird Anna's Hummingbird

Nearby Spottings

Cedar Waxwing Townsend's Warbler Cooper's Hawk California Slender Salamander

Reference

Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team