February’s Rufous Hummingbird by William Garrett Licensed under CC BY 2.0 edited by ME 
Female Rufous Hummingbird by Larry Lamsa is licensed under CC BY 2.0 edited by ME
West Coast hummingbirds typically come in two flavors: Rufous and Anna’s. Anna’s Hummingbirds are year round breeders and can be found in neighborhoods at hummingbird feeders in from B.C. to Baja. Rufous Hummingbirds are migrants that spend their winters in Mexico and fly all the way up to Alaska to breed. If they beat the flowers blooming, they will furiously guard sapsucker wells!
What about Allen’s? We seem to have a bunch here on the southern coast.
You sure do! They look almost exactly like rufous and are very difficult to distinguish without a photo of splayed tail feathers. Fortunately there is little overlap besides a complicated zone from Brookings to Crescent City.
We’ve been getting shots of them splayed tail feathers…. took awhile to figure out they were Allen’s and not the Rufous influx I was used to in Coquille. Is there such a thing as a hybrid between Rufous and Allen’s? Perhaps? You might include that overlap to Gold Beach. 😉
PS love your detailed pics to compare similar birds. Very well done! 😍
Por favor…? can you tell me if the tail feathers in the 5th image are Rufous or Allen’s? https://gunta.photos/2021/07/18/summertime/ I find them extremely difficult to distinguish.
hahaha, i looked, but I have no idea. THis is the other reason I didn’t add allens. It’s too hard for me!
😉