COLUMN: Tiny hummingbirds deserve wonder
The hummingbird family is only in the Western Hemisphere. Early European explorers mistook them for strange insects.
With warming winters, we now have year-round Anna’s hummingbirds in the Willamette Valley. In warm months, the smaller rufous returns to breed. Rufous’s equally tiny cousin, Allen’s, breeds in far southwestern Oregon. Calliope hummingbird, North America’s smallest bird, breeds in our mountain meadows with blooming shrubs. This tyke is 3.25 inches long and you could mail ten of them (an ounce…
