The Friendly Neighbourhood Anna’s Hummingbirds
by Meenal Shrivastava
Did you know that a group of hummingbirds is called a charm, a glittering, a bouquet, or a shimmer? How appropriate when you consider the heart fluttering moment of an encounter with a hummer, a tiny blur whizzing past inches from our ear, wings flapping at 55 beats per second.
If you have a resident hummingbird in your yard in North Saanich, it’s very likely an Anna’s Hummingbird. Unlike their smaller but feistier cousins, the Rufous Hummingbirds, who appear in the spring and summer months, the tough little Anna’s live along the Pacific Coast all year round.
A haze of motion as they hover on flowers looking for nectar and insects, you cannot miss the crown and the gorget of the male Anna’s iridescent reddish-pink feathers that look brown or gray without direct sunlight. Females and juvenile males have greyish throat with red spots, dull grey bellies, and golden green wings.
There is now scientific evidence of the resilience of these remarkable feathered friends. A recent study has shown that the stable network of hummingbird feeders along the Pacific Coast has spurred rapid evolution among the Anna’s Hummingbirds. They are evolving larger and longer beaks and continue to expand their territories north and east of their historical range of southern California and Baja.
Impressively, these adaptive changes have happened over just a few generations. Aside from cold acclimation, other important factors supporting range-expansion and population growth of the Anna’s are introduced plants and the dense network of hummingbird feeders.
In North Saanich, Anna’s Hummingbirds are year-round residents. They are common in yards, parks, eucalyptus groves, and coastal scrub. They readily come to hummingbird feeders and flowering plants, including cultivated species in gardens.
Some have even learnt to activate video doorbells on cold winter mornings to remind the humans to refill their feeder.
So, how do we help our feathered friends thrive in our neighbourhoods? Here are some ideas:
- Pollinator Friendly Planting
- North Saanich is in the Eastern Vancouver Island ecozone, which has its own unique diversity of climate and geology. Regional native plants and wildflowers support a variety of pollinators, including hummingbirds.
- Native plants do not require expensive fertilizers and toxic pesticides as they are well adapted to local conditions.
- A good local source for native plants is Satinflower Nursery in Central Saanich.
Since the Anna’s are in North Saanich year-round, winterizing the hummingbird feeders during cold spells is really important as they depend on the sugar you provide for survival. If you are not using a heated hummingbird feeder, here are some homemade solutions. So, lots of room to get creative!
Feeder Care
Hummingbird feeders are an ongoing commitment as they require consistent maintenance to prevent mold and deadly bacteria.
Please do not use anything other than refined sugar to make the nectar (1:4 ratio of sugar to water).
You can use this Audubon FAQ to answer all of your feeder related questions.
Some Tips
- Hanging at least two feeders, spaced at least 10 feet apart from each other, will ensure that more of these spunky friends will gather in your yard and not just the one dominant tyke.
- Just like other birds, hummingbirds do need water for bathing to wash away sticky nectar, pests, and dust. Instead of traditional birdbaths though, they prefer misting water features or very shallow fountains.
- Ants, bees, and wasps enjoy sugar water as much as the hummingbirds. An ant moat or hanging your feeders with sturdy fishing line are great ways to ward off ants. For bees and wasps, saucer shaped feeders are a relatively good deterrent.
So, whether you admire the neighbourhood friendly Anna’s for their vivacious vitality, their living- jewel-like feathers, or their incredible adaptability to rapidly changing environment, they are clearly tiny marvels of nature that are a joy to watch and learn from.
