Costa's Hummingbird

Front:
29 JUN 15 1992 20066 Balke WASH Costa's Hummingbird DC

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COSTA'S HUMMINGBIRD First Day of Issue: June 15, 1992 First Issue Location: Washington, D.C. The bright green and violet plumage of the Costa's Hummingbird is the perfect complement to a harshly beautiful landscape of red sandstone and purple sage. Found from California east to New Mexico, the Costa's Hummingbird is known for its fondness of high, dry plateaus. In the winter, the bird migrates a comparatively short distance to Arizona and southern California and into Mexico. But in the summer, the Costa's frequents the canyons and mountains of the American Southwest, as well as California's golden hills. The male is very distinc- tively marked, for no other hummingbird on the continent has a purple cap and throat, plus feathers that stick out like whiskers. As mating season rolls around, the male Costa's performs stunning aerial acrobatics in an attempt to woo a female. Once he has succeeded, the female will lay two tiny eggs in a nest scarcely over an inch in outside diameter. The eggs weigh as much as 20 percent of the mother's body weight, the equivalent of a 135-pound woman giving birth to a 27-pound baby. No. 92-48 First Day of Issue Postcard Collection™ ©1992 Fleetwood®, Cheyenne, WY 82008-0001 Original painting for the First Day of Issue Postcard by Don Balke Fleetwood OFFICIAL FIRST DAY OF ISSUE POSTCARD NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETYⓇ