Hummingbird approaching canna
Selasphorus sp.
Rufous or Allen's Hummingbird · San Diego Botanic Garden · 7 March 2026
A hummingbird coming in to a canna bed in a San Diego garden in the last light of the day. The rufous flanks put it among the Selasphorus hummingbirds, Rufous or Allen's, the two rufous hummingbirds of the Pacific coast; Allen's breeds here and Rufous passes through in March on its way to Alaska.
Canna is not a hummingbird flower by design - it is pollinated by bees and butterflies in its native range - but the tubular red flowers are close enough to the shape a hummingbird hunts for that they work them anyway. The two species are not safely told apart from a photograph of a female.
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