Phoenix is blessed with beautiful autumn weather that guarantees every resident a welcome return to their patio after a summer's cloister indoors from the relentless heat. Besides barbecuing and sunbathing, birding is a favorite seasonal backyard attraction, with our local hummingbirds getting star billing in that activity. They're regular customers of the sugar water feeders we keep provisioned, in addition to the lantana, petunias and countless other flowers we grow in our yards.
While the state of Arizona attracts a large variety of migratory and seasonal hummingbirds, the sprawling city of Phoenix is home to predominately one, the Anna's. It's most likely that the bird flashing his magenta gorget and head as he darts, buzzes and chirps about your backyard is a male member of this species. But the local Sonoran Desert is also the full-time home to another hummingbird variety, the Costa's.
Less than two thirds the size of the Anna's, the diminutive Costa's seems to lose out in the fierce territory wars that all male hummingbirds wage in our backyards. As a result, most feeders seem to be controlled by a single dominant Anna's, defending his turf from the many females, adolescents and other males that want a quenching sip of his patron's nectar.
Over the years, the only non-Anna's hummingbird I've seen at my Phoenix feeder is indeed the Costa's, but it's an infrequent sighting. I've had better luck seeing this species on desert hikes or in the wildflower exhibit at the botanical garden. My backyard visitor is almost always either an adolescent male, not yet versed in the neighborhood hierarchy, or a female that makes a desperate, furtive stop. But for almost a week, a mature individual has been making brave and successful visits to the feeder, somehow staying out of view of the dominant Anna's. When he is finally discovered, there is a ferocious dogfight that always results in the Costa's fleeing.
One late, recent afternoon, the resident Anna's must have been exploring a far corner of his domain, as the Costa's uncharacteristically took the time to perch on a red yucca plant, in an open space not far away from the feeder. Secure for a brief moment, he let me get some quick shots from my patio chair, twenty feet across the yard.
He preened and ruffled some feathers and in a quick blink of the eye flashed his iridescent amethyst-colored gorget and head plumage right in my direction. It's easy to fall under the spell of his majestic, purple beauty, especially because he seems to illuminate almost half his tiny frame at a time. So for a little while I took the side of the underdog in the endless hummingbird wars, acknowledging a brief and lucky truce in my backyard battlefield.
While the state of Arizona attracts a large variety of migratory and seasonal hummingbirds, the sprawling city of Phoenix is home to predominately one, the Anna's. It's most likely that the bird flashing his magenta gorget and head as he darts, buzzes and chirps about your backyard is a male member of this species. But the local Sonoran Desert is also the full-time home to another hummingbird variety, the Costa's.
Less than two thirds the size of the Anna's, the diminutive Costa's seems to lose out in the fierce territory wars that all male hummingbirds wage in our backyards. As a result, most feeders seem to be controlled by a single dominant Anna's, defending his turf from the many females, adolescents and other males that want a quenching sip of his patron's nectar.
Over the years, the only non-Anna's hummingbird I've seen at my Phoenix feeder is indeed the Costa's, but it's an infrequent sighting. I've had better luck seeing this species on desert hikes or in the wildflower exhibit at the botanical garden. My backyard visitor is almost always either an adolescent male, not yet versed in the neighborhood hierarchy, or a female that makes a desperate, furtive stop. But for almost a week, a mature individual has been making brave and successful visits to the feeder, somehow staying out of view of the dominant Anna's. When he is finally discovered, there is a ferocious dogfight that always results in the Costa's fleeing.
One late, recent afternoon, the resident Anna's must have been exploring a far corner of his domain, as the Costa's uncharacteristically took the time to perch on a red yucca plant, in an open space not far away from the feeder. Secure for a brief moment, he let me get some quick shots from my patio chair, twenty feet across the yard.
He preened and ruffled some feathers and in a quick blink of the eye flashed his iridescent amethyst-colored gorget and head plumage right in my direction. It's easy to fall under the spell of his majestic, purple beauty, especially because he seems to illuminate almost half his tiny frame at a time. So for a little while I took the side of the underdog in the endless hummingbird wars, acknowledging a brief and lucky truce in my backyard battlefield.
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| Male Costa's hummingbird. |
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| Male Anna's hummingbird, for comparison. That season's dominant male was quite easy to photograph - he seemed to be standing his ground as I approached with the camera. |
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| Male Costa's hummingbird |
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| Male Costa's hummingbird. |
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| Male Costa's hummingbird. |
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| Male Costa's hummingbird. |
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| Male Costa's hummingbird. |
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| Male Costa's hummingbird. |
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| Male Costa's hummingbird. |
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| Male Costa's hummingbird. |
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| Male Costa's hummingbird. |
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| Male Costa's hummingbird. |
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| Male Costa's hummingbird. |
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| Male Costa's hummingbird. |
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| Male Costa's hummingbird. |
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