To-day in the nursery Anna's Hummingbirds were visiting spiders' webs among the Wax Myrtle, feeding on Fuchsia magellanica flowers and two females were feeding side by side in the tiny white flowers of Evergreen Huckleberry. They both had prominent central throat gorgets with no other red colouring on their head neck or throat. They were in adult plumage as far as one tell from externals.

The thing, the most amazing thing, in all the recent discussion of "romance", "pairs", "recrudescence" and "mating displays", is the timing of these events. While many of our breeding birds have either departed for sunnier climes or are adapting to a winter life, ANHU is preparing for its breeding season. In Discovery Park, many birds are occupying little snags, where they singing with a scratchy "song" or doing diving display with the accompanying "peek" noise. They must all be males, yet none of the birds identified, from late August to the present date, has been in full adult plumage, covering throat, crown and nape. In fact they look a little threadbare.

What is unusual about ANHU, being an in-migrant from California is that they retain the breeding schedule from original more southerly latitudes. In the hills of Santa Monica, males are in breeding plumage, displaying (territorial defence) vigorously and in full "recrudescence" in November, certainly by December. Females are not ready to breed before mid-December. In Seattle I believe our birds follow the same schedule and would be ready to breed were it not for our periodic hard weather. There are enough ornamental blooms coupled with the sometimes early bloom of Red Flowering, Indian Plum and Salmonberry to make this feasible by late January or early February.

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David Hutchinson, Owner
Flora & Fauna: Nature Books
Discovery Gardens: Native Plants
3212 W.Government Way
Seattle,WA.98199
http://www.ffbooks.net/
206-623-4727