Hummingbird at canna
Selasphorus sp.
Rufous or Allen's Hummingbird · San Diego Botanic Garden · 7 March 2026
A hummingbird at a canna bed in a San Diego garden in the last light of the day. The rufous flanks and green back put it in Selasphorus, Rufous or Allen's, the two rufous hummingbirds of the Pacific coast, and the two are famously hard to separate: on females and young birds it comes down to the width of particular tail feathers, which no photograph from the side will show.
Canna is not a hummingbird flower by design. It is pollinated by bees and butterflies in its native range, but the deep red tubes are close enough to the shape hummingbirds hunt for that they work it anyway.
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