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The Watershed Project

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What’s in Your Watershed? | The Flashy Anna’s Hummingbird

By Andrew LaBar

Fall is an exciting time to gaze out your window. The sun is shining brightly, the leaves are changing, and if you’re as lucky as we’ve been here at The Watershed Project, the beautiful Anna’s hummingbird could be putting on a lively show right in front of your eyes, almost close enough to touch.

Physical Appearance
Anna’s hummingbird is the largest tiny bird on the west coast. At maturity, reaches nine or ten centimeters in length. Anna’s body showcases marvelous bronzes and greens, making these creatures shimmer in the sunlight. They have gray bellies and small white spots behind their eyes. Males sport a brilliant rose-red crown and throat, making them easy to distinguish from other hummers. The males also have a slightly forked, solid black tail with a little white tuft of feathers just above it. The female’s plumage displays the flashy bronze/green coloring with grays and browns on their wings, crown, and throat. The tails of the females are slightly rounder than the males’ and are tipped with white.

Range and Habitat
Anna’s hummingbirds are one of only two varieties found in the United States and Canada year-round. With a range that extends from British Columbia, down along the West Coast and into the western edges of New Mexico, Anna’s hummingbirds can be found in large supply during the late summer and into the fall here in the Bay Area. Humans have redefined the Anna’s habitat. Traditionally, these hummers stuck to the open woods, but an upswing in feeders and nectar-filled plantings along the West Coast has allowed the birds to expand their range. Anna’s hummingbird now thrives in urban and suburban yards, gardens, and parks.

Diet
Anna’s hummingbird has quite the sugar tooth. They use their medium-length slender beak to feed on the nectar found in sugary native plants like the red-flowering currant. Sometimes, they get protein by snatching up small insects. For those that live in the woods, insect-filled tree sap is a tasty meal. An influx of hummingbird feeders in yards has allowed for close contact and viewing of Anna’s hummingbird for many enthusiasts.

Mating and Life Span
It’s almost that special time of year. The mating season for the Anna’s hummingbird falls during the rainy season, between November and April. During this time, the female bird is busy building her soft nest, composed primarily of spider webs, plants, feathers, and hair in the inside, and bark and other hard, camouflaging bits on the outside.

Once her nest is suitable, the female bird lures an interested male towards her nest and perches on the side. In an effort to impress her, the male orchestrates a series of dive bombs around the female, showing off his skill and fiery red feathers. After mating, the male bird leaves and is no help at all in raising the young brood. Females can have two broods per mating season, incubating the eggs and nesting their offspring for about two months before they achieve independence. The average lifespan of Anna’s hummingbirds is eight and a half years.

Flighty Behavior
Anna’s hummingbirds are very territorial. Grouchy males will dive at creatures entering their territory, regardless of size. The bird may fly as high as forty meters into the air before diving at the individual is an impressive show of brilliant color. The bird also has a distinctive bird call, heard when eating and before mating.

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What’s in Your Watershed? | The Lovely Long-billed Curlew

By Dan Grannan

The long-billed curlew is an epic bird. Not only is it the largest shorebird in North America, it also displays one the greatest aerial shows of any avian flier. During breeding season, the curlew flies in fast loops as part of a courtship dance. This ostentatious display attracts both feathered mates and human bird-watchers alike. Named for its long, slender bill and “cur-loo” call, curlews are also called “candlestick birds” and are the namesake for San Francisco’s Candlestick Point.

Physical Appearance
Adult curlews have an elongated bill that curves downwards, a long neck and a small head, while the chicks have a much smaller and less curved bill. The females have a much longer bill than the males. Curlews’ underbelly and neck are cinnamon-colored and their crown and back are speckled with various shades of brown.

Range and Habitat
The long-billed curlews breeding range is massive. It spans from southern Canada to northern California, and also includes Utah, northern New Mexico and Texas. The curlew loves the sun and winters in California, Texas, Louisiana, and South Carolina as well as Florida, Mexico, and Central America. This range used to be much larger with massive numbers being found along the Great Plains and eastern prairies. Increased agriculture and livestock grazing has shrunk the range of the curlew.

Diet
In the summertime, curlews sample grasshoppers, beetles and crickets from the grasslands. Throw in a small amphibian from time to time and you have the ideal summer diet. During the winter months when the bird is sunning on the beach, small crustaceans, mollusks, berries and seeds are its delicacies of choice.

Child Rearing
Mama curlew lays four eggs in a grass-lined nest and incubates them for about one month. Papa curlew assists by taking turns warming and guarding the little eggs. Mama and Papa curlew use their multi-colored feather coats to camouflage and protect the nest from predators. Skilled actors, the adult birds are known to feign injury to lure potential egg-snatchers away from the nest. They also can take a more direct approach if needed, using loud vocalization and dive bombing to deter predators. Once hatched, the chicks are almost fully independent. The adults teach them to hunt grasshoppers and watch over them for up to 45 days, and then they are on their own. The average curlew life span is eight to ten years.

Conservation Status
Under the U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan curlews are currently slated as “critically imperiled.” Habitat destruction is a major concern for the curlew. As marshlands are shrinking and prairie lands are developed or converted to farmland, the curlew is losing its potential habitat breeding grounds. With a current population size of only 123,500, monitoring and protection efforts are critical to ensure this population does not suffer the same fate of many other extinct species. You can help protect this lovely bird next month by joining The Watershed Project on International Coastal Cleanup Day to ensure that curlew habitat is free of marine debris.

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