SANTA CRUZ >> Last September, birdwatchers thought they had a once-in-lifetime treat of seeing a rare white hummingbird at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and Botanic Garden. This week, a second white hummingbird has been spotted in the same area.
The second rare white bird, thought to be an Allen’s hummingbird, claimed territory around a eucalyptus now drawing a captivated audience at the UCSC garden.
An Allen’s hummingbird typically would be orange and green. The bird that whizzed around the eucalyptus on Saturday, amid a host of amateur photographers and birders, is pale with a beige back, otherwise white coat, black beak and black eyes. The bird may have leucism, a developmental condition of absent pigment, leaving the bird mostly white.
In September, a leucistic Anna’s hummingbird, also white and also still at the garden, was spotted by a tour group. Retired UCSC biologist Todd Newberry said the Allen’s hummingbird appeared recently as he walked to the tree where the bird has been spotted.
“The way to find a rare bird is to find a bunch of birders looking in the same direction,” Newberry said.
A DIFFERENT BIRD
Birder Lisa Larson went looking for the Anna’s hummingbird recently and she “found something pretty miraculous.”
“I didn’t find the Anna’s, but I was thrilled to find a male leucistic Allen’s hummingbird,” Larson said. “He is a healthy and pugnacious little guy – a bit smaller than an Anna’s hummingbird. I saw him do the U-shape flight pattern, which is characteristic of the Allen’s hummingbird. He arcs in a U-shape three or four times, then ascends up into the sky and dives down, wings emitting a screechy sound at the bottom of the dive.”
She said she noticed the rusty blush on the wings and back right away.
“I noticed the rusty blush on the wings and back right away, and I knew it was not the Anna’s hummingbird. He has more brownish color on his rump,” Larson said.
Unlike albinism, which causes red or pinkish eyes, legs and feet, leucism causes a lack of some or most pigmentation, Larson said.
“Now, we have two distinctly leucistic Hummingbirds at the UCSC Arboretum,” Larson said. “Nature is mysterious.”
How rare are the white hummingbirds?
Newberry, 82, had never seen such an animal since he started birdwatching in 1948.
The Allen’s hummingbird fluttered around the tree, occasionally pausing to the photographers’ delight. The bird flew rapidly around the front of the tree, covering lots of air space before returning to perch on a branch as if claiming territory.
“(The Anna’s and the Allen’s) behave like males; they chase things away,” Newberry said. The Allen’s, he added, “is the Donald Trump of hummingbirds. It has a nice habit of sitting on the end of the branches.”
CROWDS OF FANS
Martin Quigley, executive director of the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and Botanic Garden, said he’s seen a 30 percent increase in visitors since fall, likely due to the first leucistic hummingbird.
“At first we heard that people were flying in from Texas and locals and people from over the hill were canceling vacations because we didn’t think it would stay very long,” Quigley said.
The first leucistic hummingbird was white with grey undertones. The second bird is white with rust undertones and is smaller than the first, Quigley said.
The word is out about the second bird and crowds have started coming, Quigley said. The first bird already had a dedicated cadre of photographers who’d visit nearly daily to photograph it, he said.
“Even after the novelty wore off on the old one (the first bird), there’d be 40 or 50 people standing around a bush. It was amazing,” Quigley said. Molly McCorkell of Santa Cruz was visiting the protected forest Saturday to photograph the Allen’s hummingbird.
“He’s very active,” McCorkell said. “He seems like he’s territorial, the way he’s buzzing around.”
Hummingbirds consume nectar and insects for protein.
“This is a huge candy store for them,” Newberry said.
Santa Cruz is near the northern boundary of small birds’ migration patterns.
As he was leaving the garden, a few birders approached Newberry.
“Where is it?” asked Doris Sharrock.
“Where is what?” Newberry responded.
“You know, the white bird,” Sharrock said.
Newberry said it’s unclear exactly what caused the bird’s white pigmentation.
“There’s a lot of stories,” Newberry said. “That’s what natural history really is: stories.”
Sentinel reporter Kara Guzman contributed to this report.
