Anna's hummingbirds in California: A guide to the state's year-round hummingbird

Anna's hummingbirds live in California all year. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife's (CDFW) California Wildlife Habitat Relationships account describes the species as a common resident throughout coastal California and much of the interior, in woodland, chaparral, farms and residential neighborhoods. Because the species does not migrate much, it can visit gardens and feeders in every month.

Anna's hummingbird is not a listed species. It is protected by the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act and by state law, which also protects its nests and eggs.

This guide covers how to identify Anna's hummingbirds, where and when they live in California, their diet and unusual winter nesting season, the male's dive display, their song and calls, their legal status and the hummingbirds most often confused with them. It is part of our guide to the birds of California.

Anna's hummingbird at a glance

Sources: CBRC checklist (September 8, 2026); CDFW CWHR account B287; Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds; California Fish and Game Code; 50 CFR 10.13.

Anna's hummingbird identification: A stocky green hummingbird with a rose-pink head on the male:

The California Bird Records Committee's checklist lists the species as Anna's Hummingbird, Calypte anna. It is tiny among birds but medium-sized and stocky for a hummingbird, about 3.9 inches long with a 4.7-inch wingspan, and it weighs 0.1 to 0.2 ounce, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds identification page. The bill is straight and fairly short, and the fairly broad tail extends past the wingtips on a perched bird.

Both sexes are mostly green and gray, with no rufous or orange on the body. The adult male's throat patch, or gorget, and crown are iridescent reddish-pink. That color depends on light. Out of direct sun the head can look dull brown, gray or nearly black. It also shifts in color and brightness as the bird turns its head. That shifting iridescence is what people usually mean when they say Anna's hummingbirds change color. Females are metallic green above and grayish below, with a pale line over the eye and some reddish spotting on the throat, a small red gorget that most female hummingbirds lack. Immature males are duller than adults, with a blotchy rose-pink crown and throat.

Males often perch above head height in trees and shrubs and sing from there. Anna's hummingbirds have tiny legs and cannot walk or hop, Cornell notes, though they can shuffle sideways on a perch.

Anna's hummingbirds in California: Year-round on the coast and in much of the interior:

CDFW's habitat account describes Anna's hummingbird as mostly a year-round resident of the state. It is common throughout coastal California and much of the interior and less common in the mountains, where it is a summer resident only. Birds that breed in the mountains move to lower elevations after the breeding season. In the Colorado River and Salton Sea areas and the southeastern deserts it is mostly an uncommon winter resident, though it breeds locally, and some birds winter as far north as Joshua Tree. It is absent from most of the Great Basin desert. Offshore, it is resident on Santa Catalina and Santa Cruz islands and a visitor to the other Channel Islands.

The species occurs in most woodland and forest habitats up to mixed conifer forest, in most scrub and chaparral and in farmland and residential areas. Neighborhoods with exotic flowering plants and feeders support many Anna's hummingbirds, CWHR notes.

The California range has grown. In the first half of the 20th century, Anna's hummingbirds bred only in northern Baja California and southern California, the Cornell Lab says. Exotic flowering trees planted for gardens and landscaping supplied nectar and nest sites, and the breeding range expanded greatly. CDFW's account also links widespread planting of exotic flowers to the species' spread north and to more birds spending the winter in coastal California.

Anna's hummingbird diet and nesting: Nectar, insects and a nesting season that starts in December:

Anna's hummingbirds take nectar from many flowering plants, especially currants and gooseberries (genus Ribes). They also eat small insects and spiders, pollen and tree sap. They hover to probe flowers and to pick insects from leaves, and they also catch insects in the air. CDFW's account says the species appears to rely more heavily on insects than other hummingbirds do.

Males set up feeding territories around a rich food source, such as a flowering shrub or a feeder, before the breeding season. A breeding territory is defended more actively and has a core of about a quarter of an acre around a dependable food supply.

Nesting starts early. Anna's hummingbirds breed from mid-December to mid-August, with peak activity from February to May. Males take no part in nesting. The female nests on her own and tends the young alone. Nests sit 3 to 30 feet up in shrubs, vines or trees, including oaks, eucalyptus and orchard trees. The usual clutch is two eggs. The female incubates for 14 to 19 days, the young stay in the nest for 18 to 23 days and she feeds them for up to two weeks after they fledge. In many areas a female raises two broods a season, possibly three. Scrub-jays and a few climbing reptiles take eggs and young.

Cold weather is the main hazard for a bird this small. Long cold spells kill the flowers and insects the birds depend on, and Cornell notes that Anna's hummingbirds can drop into torpor in cold weather, slowing their breathing and heart rate and letting their body temperature fall sharply. For feeders, Cornell recommends one part sugar to four parts water, with no honey or food coloring.

Anna's hummingbird song and dive display: Scratchy songs, chip calls and a tail-feather squeak:

The male Anna's hummingbird has a long song for a hummingbird, lasting 10 seconds or more, and runs from buzzy notes to a clearer, whistled section and then more forceful chips, and the whole sequence may be repeated. Cornell describes it as scratchy and metallic. Calls are short, sharp chip notes given singly or in a rapid twittering series.

The loudest sound comes from the tail, not the throat. In his courtship dive, a male climbs as high as about 130 feet, then plunges almost straight down toward another hummingbird, or sometimes a person, ending with a sharp squeak near the target. Experiments and high-speed video showed that air rushing over the male's modified outer tail feathers makes the squeak. Recordings of the song, calls and dive are on the All About Birds Anna's hummingbird sounds page.

Anna's hummingbird legal status in California: A protected nongame bird:

Anna's hummingbird is not listed as threatened or endangered under state or federal law, and Cornell rates it of low conservation concern. It is still protected. The species is on the federal list of migratory birds at 50 CFR 10.13, which brings it under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Fish and Game Code section 3513 makes it unlawful to take or possess any bird on that federal list except as federal rules allow. As a native bird that is not a game bird, it is also a nongame bird under section 3800.

Nests are covered too. Section 3503 makes it unlawful to take, possess or needlessly destroy the nest or eggs of any bird except as the code or its regulations allow. Because Anna's hummingbirds can nest in any month from December to August, a nest in a garden shrub or vine may be active at times of year when people do not expect it.

Similar species to Anna's hummingbird in California: Costa's, black-chinned and rufous hummingbirds:

Cornell lists the Costa's, black-chinned, broad-tailed and rufous hummingbirds as the species most likely to be confused with Anna's. Two field marks help. Anna's hummingbirds have no rufous or orange on the body, which separates them from the rufous hummingbird. A female Anna's hummingbird usually shows reddish spotting on the throat, a mark most female hummingbirds lack. The adult male's rose-pink color covers the crown as well as the throat, so the whole head lights up in good sun.

Anna's hummingbirds in California: A year-round resident that nests in winter:

Anna's hummingbirds are California's year-round hummingbird, common along the coast and through much of the interior, scarcer in the mountains and mostly a winter visitor in the southeastern deserts. They nest when most birds are not, starting in mid-December, and planted flowers and gardens have helped them spread north. They are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Fish and Game Code, which also protects their nests and eggs.