Winter isn't always cruel. Anna’s hummingbirds have long lived in coastal California’s mild climate. Baja to the San Francisco Bay were their traditional range.
In the 1930s, they spread. In the 1960s, they moved east and nest in Arizona. While pushing north across coastal Oregon, Washington, and southwestern British Columbia.
Most American hummingbirds live in the West, notably the South-west. The ruby-throats were the only hummers east of the Great Plains.
Most wintered in southern Mexico or Central America, with only a few in Florida. Western hummingbirds migrating east have exploded in recent decades.
Rufous hummingbirds lead. Most Western hummers, including this copper-colored sprite, spend early summer in Northwestern woodlands from Oregon and Montana to Alaska.
The majority of the population migrates south across Rockies mountain meadows to Mexico for the winter in late summer and early fall.
Strays would have died in the winter in millennia past unless they changed direction and headed for Mexico. They ran out of wildflowers for the season.
For hummingbirds, many Southerners create winter hummingbird gardens with sugar-water feeders and red, tubular flowers that bloom when it's cool.
Rufous hummingbirds presently inhabit Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, with smaller numbers in Virginia and beyond. Apparently, they brought friends.