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| Allen's Hummingbird. March 30, 2014. San Elijo Lagoon, California. Greg Gillson. |
Allen's Hummingbirds breed along a narrow coastal strip from southern California to extreme southern Oregon. In fact, Allen's Hummingbirds barely make it 30 miles into southern Oregon. From this point northward to Alaska and inland Rufous Hummingbirds breed.
There are two subspecies of Allen's Hummingbirds. One is sedentary (non-migratory), found on the Channel Islands off Los Angeles, and only on the mainland in recent years. All the other Allen's Hummingbirds migrate to a very small area to winter in southern Mexico in the states of Mexico, Morelos, and Puebla.
I found Allen's Hummingbirds here in San Diego County in January, thus one of the resident form, now expanding their range farther from Los Angeles. Many other Allen's, presumably of the migrant race, arrived in March. And I did see one Rufous Hummingbird migrating through in March, too.
Hi, I believe I saw a male Allen's hummingbird today on Kwaay Paay trail. It was flashing a red-orange gorget and had some orange on its sides. It made that burry trill of the Allen's/Rufous. Do you think it would be more likely Allen's than Rufous - Feb. 2, 2019. Sandy
ReplyDeleteThat's great Sandy! It could be either. This is the start of migration for both Rufous and Allen's. Some Allen's are resident too, though, so more lightly overall.
DeleteI live in Encinitas, San Diego and I have a female hummingbird in my backyard as a permanent resident. She may be an Allen, but given her feisty behavior around the feeder I think she is a rufous. I have read that interbreeding is possible, I don't know if she can have some Anna genes as well. I see many Annas here all the time. They are much more tolerant of each other than she is.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your hummingbird story.
DeleteRufous are not supposed to nest in California--only Oregon to Alaska. So your hummingbird should be the local race of Allen's that nest on the Channel Islands and Santa Barbara to San Diego. The only real way to tell Rufous from Allen's apart is to capture them and measure their tail feathers! The hybrid zone is a tiny portion of SW Oregon and NW California.
There is another race of Allen's that nests all along the California Coast, but winters in Mexico.
Anna's is so different that I don't think they interbreed. Anna's do hybridize with Costa's, though.
Telling hybrids is not always easy. Sometimes they look half way between. But more often they may appear as one of the parent species with one feature just "off." At other times, hybrids don't look like either parent species, so it's hard to tell what it might be!