Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna) 20 September 2018 Pacifica, San Mateo County, California, USA
Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna)

Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna)
Anna's Hummingbird has continued to expand its range since the mid-1930s. At that time it nested only on the Pacific slope of northern Baja and California north to the San Francisco Bay area. Now it breeds north to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, east through southern Arizona, and even to West Texas. This range expansion is probably related to the spread of exotic garden plants and hummingbird feeders. This male is molting head and crown feathers and lacks red on its crown. It also lacks the elongated throat feathers projecting to the sides of its rose-colored gorget. Molting birds such as this may be confused with other species, such as Broad-tailed Hummingbird which does not occur in this part of California. The bright iridescent colors vary with light angle and often appear black.

This photo shows some fine wing details. One feature of the genus Calypte is that all the primaries are about equal width as seen here. Also Anna's is unique in having very short greater coverts. This feature is visible here as a tiny row of darker feathers directly above the clumped secondaries. Nikon CoolPix P510.

References:

Clark, C. J. and S. M. Russell (2012). Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna), version 2.0. In The Birds of North America (A. F. Poole, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bna.226

Howell, S.N.G. 2002. Hummingbirds of North America. Academic Press

Schuchmann, K.L. & Boesman, P. (2018). Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/55656 on 20 October 2018).
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