Costa’s Hummingbird

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(Calypte costae)

Date of admission: November 13, 2025.
Reason for admission: Displaced.

Patient History:

Costa’s hummingbirds are small hummingbirds with green feathers, grey-white chests, and short tails. Like all hummingbirds, they have a needle-like bill fit for drinking nectar, and are known for their quick, zipping flight pattern used to travel between flowering plants. Male Costa’s hummingbirds have a patch of iridescent feathers on their necks known as a 'gorget.' In the light, the gorget feathers appear purple and are used to attract mates and defend a small territory. Though native to North America, this tiny species is named after Louis Marie Pantaleon Costa de Beauregar, a nineteenth-century Italian military commander who had a particular fondness for collecting hummingbirds. 

Many hummingbirds, including the Costa's hummingbird, become vulnerable in cold overnight temperatures due to their small body size. To withstand cooler nights, hummingbirds enter a dormant state called torpor, where they lower their heart rate, body temperature, and overall metabolism to conserve energy otherwise used to stay warm. While some animals, like bats, enter torpor for long stretches of time, hummingbirds are able to enter and emerge from torpor daily. 

Throughout the winter and spring, Costa’s hummingbirds can be found in the deserts of California, Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico, where they breed and nest before migration. To avoid the intense summer heat of their breeding habitat, Costa’s hummingbirds migrate to the coastal regions of California and Mexico, where temperatures are cooler and flowers and insects are abundant year-round. Small birds, like hummingbirds, are susceptible to a phenomenon called “drift migration,” where they are blown off course from their usual path. This phenomenon, in addition to a lack of resource availability in their native range, could explain why Costa’s hummingbirds have been spotted in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and even as far north as Alaska. 

After many weeks of monitoring her movements in the Calgary area, this hummingbird was brought into care after she showed no signs of migrating south with the approach of winter. While this Costa’s hummingbird is able to enter torpor, her dormant state would have been no match for Alberta’s cold winters and snowy landscape. Despite being far from home, she was fairly healthy on intake and weighed 3 grams, falling within the normal range for this species. Since her arrival, she has been adjusting well to her new tropical sanctuary at our facility. She has been eating a healthy diet of nectar, nectar supplement, and small insects while in care, and is provided with fresh plants and greenery each week to enrich her environment. 

This little patient is the first of her kind at AIWC, and accounts for only the fifth documented sighting of her species in Alberta. We are honoured to have her with us, and we thank you for supporting her care!