Costa's Hummingbird, Calypte costae
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![]() This was the first Costa's Hummingbird I was able to photograph in North America, a vagrant first-cycle male in nearly full adult male plumage in December, shown in flight above and perched below. He vigorously defended this purple sage territory in Santa Clara County for several months in the fall and winter of 2013-14. See further down the page for earlier photos of the same bird, when he was just growing in adult crown and gorget feathers. | |||
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![]() Above and below, the same male Costa's nine weeks earlier; it had molted out of its juvenal plumage, but was not yet showing the full adult purple gorget and crown. The pictures below were taken two weeks after the one above, and the bird had grown in a few more iridescent gorget feathers in the meantime. |
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![]() Above and below, Costa's were one of the most common hummingbirds we saw on our two visits to southern Baja California in 2005. The bird shown above is a sub-adult male, like the one shown in the two pictures immediately above; the one shown below is a female. |
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