Rare Leucistic Hummingbird – Santa Cruz Arboretum

Today’s adventure was to visit Santa Cruz, California, to find and photograph the rare, nearly completely white leucistic hummingbird who resides in the UCSC Arboretum. I am currently on a Princess cruise ship. Upon docking in San Francisco it was off to Enterprise Car Rental. Once in the rental car, two friends and I drove down to Santa Cruz to visit the arboretum.

I heard that if you want to find this bird you should look for the crowd of people trying to photograph it. The arboretum was nearly empty except for a crowd of people gathered around one of the plants in the Australian Gardens. After waiting with them for about ten minutes, the little leucistic Anna’s Hummingbird made an appearance.

What a treat to see and photograph this little guy! I stayed there for about two hours, as he would feed and fly off for about twenty minutes before coming back for another drink. After feeding on the nectar he would fly high over the trees to a location out of the arboretum. Nothing to do but enjoy the company of other birders while waiting for the little guy to come back for more nectar.

Enjoy the photos! I will be posting a video upon my return to Studio City, as my video editing program is on my other computer. In the meantime, enjoy the webcam. Sorry, but no leucistic hummers there. Yet.

Carole Studio City, CA