Anna’s Hummingbird

The One That Stays

Every fall, the rufous hummingbirds that buzzed through Salem all summer pack up and head to Mexico. The feeders go quiet. The garden flowers fade. And then, on a cold November morning, you hear a sharp, scratchy tsik from the top of a bare tree, and there it is; a hummingbird, sitting in the rain, not going anywhere. That's an Anna's hummingbird, and it's here to stay.

Anna's hummingbirds are year-round residents in the Willamette Valley, which would have been remarkable news fifty years ago. Their original range was coastal California and Baja, but over the past century they've expanded north along the Pacific Coast, following the spread of suburban gardens, exotic flowering plants, and hummingbird feeders. They reached Oregon in the 1960s and are now common throughout western Oregon, including Salem. This northward expansion is one of the most dramatic range shifts of any North American bird in modern times.

Identification

Anna's hummingbirds are medium-sized for hummingbirds; about four inches long and weighing roughly the same as a nickel. Males are the flashiest birds in the patch: the entire head and throat (gorget) is covered in iridescent feathers that appear dull gray or dark from most angles but explode into brilliant magenta-rose-pink when the light hits them directly. The effect is startling; like someone flipped a switch. The body is metallic green above and grayish below with green flanks.

Females are less flashy but still beautiful: metallic green above, pale gray below, with a small patch of iridescent pink-red on the throat; enough to identify them as Anna's rather than the other hummingbird species that pass through. The tail is rounded with white tips on the outer feathers.

The key to separating Anna's from rufous hummingbirds (which are present March through August) is timing and plumage: Anna's are present year-round and lack the orange-rufous coloring of the rufous. In winter, any hummingbird in Salem is almost certainly an Anna's.

The Dive Display

One of the most spectacular things you'll witness in The Patient Garden is the Anna's hummingbird dive display. Males perform this during breeding season, which in Salem can start as early as January. The bird flies up to a height of about 100 feet; a tiny speck against the sky; then plummets straight down in a steep dive, pulling up at the last moment with an explosive pop or squeak produced by the tail feathers. The dive is aimed at a female or a perceived rival, and the bird often repeats it several times.

This display combines visual spectacle (the gorget flashes brilliantly at the bottom of the dive as the bird faces the sun) with a sound display (the tail-generated pop). It's aerobatics at hummingbird scale, and it happens in plain view over backyards and gardens throughout Salem in late winter and early spring.

Surviving Salem Winters

How does a bird that weighs less than a nickel survive a Willamette Valley winter? Anna's hummingbirds use several strategies. They enter torpor on cold nights; dropping their body temperature from around 107°F to as low as 48°F, reducing their metabolic rate by up to 95%. They wake at dawn, shivering their flight muscles to warm up, and immediately seek food.

Winter food sources include whatever flowers are blooming; winter-flowering plants like mahonia, witch hazel, and rosemary; supplemented by tiny insects gleaned from bark and leaf surfaces. Hummingbird feeders are genuinely important for winter survival in the northern part of their range. If you maintain a feeder in Salem through winter, bring it inside at night when temperatures drop below freezing and put it back out at first light. The birds will be waiting.

Around The Patient Garden

Anna's hummingbirds are regular visitors to The Patient Garden year-round. The garden's mix of flowering plants; salvia, bee balm, lavender, rosemary, and others; provides nectar from spring through fall, and the early-blooming species like hellebore and rosemary bridge the lean winter months. A territorial male likely claims the garden as his own, perching on the highest available twig to survey his domain and chase off any intruder.

Fairview offers a landscape of garden flowers, ornamental plantings, and surrounding native vegetation that supports both the nectar and insect components of the hummingbird diet. The sheltered microclimate of the garden beds, protected from wind by surrounding trees and structures, provides slightly warmer conditions that help these small birds conserve energy.

Food Sources and the Insect Connection

People think of hummingbirds as nectar feeders, and nectar is the primary fuel; the high-octane sugar that powers their extraordinary metabolism. But hummingbirds also eat a surprising number of tiny insects and spiders, which provide the protein and fat they need for body maintenance and breeding. Anna's hummingbirds hawk small flies from the air, glean aphids and spiders from leaves and bark, and even steal insects from spider webs.

In the garden, this means hummingbirds benefit from more than just flowers. A healthy insect population; which comes from diverse plantings, no pesticide use, and some tolerance for aphids and small flies; supports the protein side of the hummingbird diet. Every time you resist the urge to spray, you're feeding a hummingbird.

Plant Associations

Anna's hummingbirds visit a wide range of flowers, with a preference for red and orange tubular blooms that match their bill shape and visual sensitivity. In The Patient Garden, prime hummingbird plants include salvia (especially red and hot-pink varieties), bee balm, hardy fuchsia, penstemon, red-flowering currant (a critical early-spring native nectar source), and rosemary. Year-round coverage requires planning: mahonia and rosemary for winter, red-flowering currant for early spring, salvias and bee balm for summer, and late-blooming fuchsias for fall.

Native plants are especially valuable because they've coevolved with local pollinators. Red-flowering currant blooms in March just when Anna's hummingbirds are beginning to nest and need steady nectar supplies.

Nesting

Anna's hummingbirds nest remarkably early. In Salem, nest-building can begin in January, with eggs laid in February; when most other birds haven't even started thinking about territories. The nest is a tiny cup of plant down and spider silk, often decorated with lichen, placed on a sheltered branch six to twenty feet up. The female builds the nest, incubates the two pea-sized eggs, and raises the young entirely on her own. The male contributes nothing beyond the initial mating; he's too busy defending his territory and dive-bombing everything that moves.

Conservation

Anna's hummingbirds are increasing in both population and range; they're a genuine conservation success story, though one driven largely by human landscape modification rather than deliberate conservation action. The spread of suburban gardens and feeders enabled their northward expansion. Maintaining winter-blooming plants and clean feeders in Salem directly supports these birds through the most challenging season. Avoiding pesticides preserves the insect prey they depend on.

The Jewel in the Garden

Anna's hummingbirds are the birds that make non-birders into birders. The iridescence, the hovering, the impossible-seeming dive displays, the fierce territoriality packed into a body the size of your thumb; it's all spectacle. Keep a clean feeder out year-round, plant for continuous bloom, and these tiny jewels will be a daily presence in The Patient Garden through every season.