Medicaid cuts threaten hundreds of hospitals, new report finds
Together, the hospitals provide care for nearly 7 million patients across the U.S., according to the analysis.
Across the country, hospitals have already warned they may need to lay off staff members or scale back care, including maternity and mental health care, because of Medicaid cuts.Image Source / Getty Images
More than 400 hospitals across the United States are at high risk of closing or cutting services because of the Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” according to an analysis from the progressive watchdog group Public Citizen.
The fallout could make it harder for millions of people to get care and put thousands of health care workers’ jobs at risk as hospitals lose a key source of federal funding. Medicaid covers about a fifth of all hospital spending.
The Medicaid cuts come in phases, with more significant changes, including work requirements, in 2027 and limits on how states raise funds in 2028. Overall, the law is expected to reduce federal Medicaid funding by roughly $1 trillion over the next decade.
“We’re seeing hospitals that are already under severe financial strain having to make decisions about how to stay financially solvent,” said Eileen O’Grady, a researcher in Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division and the report’s author. “That has pretty clear implications for people who live in that community. It also has ripple effects on other hospitals in those communities.”
The analysis draws on hospital financial data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from 2022 through 2024, covering about 95% of U.S. hospitals. The group defined at-risk hospitals as those in which Medicaid and other low-income government programs made up at least 20% of revenue and that have been operating at a loss in recent years.
The report doesn’t estimate when hospitals could close or cut services.
“Closure is the worst-case scenario, but it also doesn’t preclude hospitals from having to make really tough decisions about cutting services that might be essential to those communities but are just no longer financially viable,” O’Grady said.
Across the country, hospitals have already made statements warning they may need to lay off staff or scale back care, including maternity and mental health care, because of the Medicaid cuts.
For many patients, hospitals are the last place to turn when there are few or no other options for care.
“When hospitals close, patients have less access to the care that they need,” said Gideon Lukens, director of research and data analysis on the health policy team at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research group. “They have to travel further or wait longer in other hospitals that become overcrowded. That additional time can be the difference between success and failure of time-sensitive, potentially life-saving treatments.”
The closures also add strain to the hospitals that take on the extra patients. O’Grady said doctors end up having “less patience, less time, less capacity to provide the highest quality care.”
“It can be very dangerous for hospitals to be under this kind of strain,” she said.
The analysis found a total of 446 at-risk hospitals, with at least one at-risk hospital in 44 states and Washington, D.C.
About 60% of the at-risk hospitals — 267 facilities — are in urban areas, even as much of the debate around Medicaid cuts has focused on rural hospitals. Black and Latino people stand to be the most affected by the cuts.
The hospitals span both Democratic and Republican-led states, though the states with the largest number of at-risk hospitals are California, New York, Illinois and Washington.
Republicans also represent several congressional districts with the highest number of at-risk hospitals. House Republicans who voted for the Medicaid cuts have 196 at-risk hospitals in their districts, while Senate Republicans — all of whom back the cuts — represent 146 at-risk hospitals in their states, according to the analysis.
The cuts could lead to a worsening crisis, especially for rural hospitals, said Zachary Levinson, the project director of the KFF Project on Hospital Costs.
He said that by his estimates, Trump’s law sets aside $50 billion to support rural communities, but could reduce federal Medicaid spending in rural areas by far more — about $137 billion over a decade.
James Jackson, the CEO of Alameda Health System in Oakland, California, said the Medicaid cuts represent an “existential threat.”
Alameda Health System, which gets 60% of its revenue from Medicaid payments, announced in December that it would lay off nearly 300 employees and lose more than $100 million annually by 2030. (The health network was not included on Public Citizen’s at-risk list, though the report notes its financial troubles.)
The layoffs, set to take effect in March, have since been delayed.
Proposed cuts included mental health services, care for patients with chronic conditions and an ambulatory plastic surgery program. Jackson said closing hospitals is not on the table, but the system has continued to look at scaling back services.
“I don’t think the impact is going to be a positive one,” he said. “We are often the provider of last recourse, so if we’re not able to provide a service, there will be a delay in receiving care at one of the other systems in the area or they may not provide it at all.”
Trinity Health, a Michigan-based hospital system with facilities in other states, said it’s projected to lose $1.5 billion due to “recent and future government policy changes.”
In January, it said it was laying off 10.5% of its billing staff. One of its hospitals, St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital in rural northeast Georgia, announced last October it was closing its maternity unit.
In a statement, a Trinity Health spokesperson shared a previous statement that said in part that “more reductions” are being considered by the federal government and it’s “not possible to simply absorb such a significant financial impact without making thoughtful, forward-thinking changes.”
Berkeley Lovelace Jr. is a health and medical reporter for NBC News. He covers the Food and Drug Administration, with a special focus on Covid vaccines, prescription drug pricing and health care. He previously covered the biotech and pharmaceutical industry with CNBC.
I got up at 3 am this morning and was able to respond to almost all the comments. That gave me a few minutes while I ate some apple oatmeal for breakfast to read some news from Joe My God that he posted yesterday. Here they are in no particular order. Hugs
Yes it would make me want to sign up to work grueling hours and possibly die for a country that wants to use my graduation to arrest and deport my family members. Great move. Hugs.
I wonder what makes a person so hateful, bigoted, and racist. How much do you fear not being in a super majority and why? Do they worry that the new majority will treat them the way they treated the minorities when they were the majority? Hugs
More racism. This program they are now stopping claiming it is DEI and woke is because the first program illegally excluded black people in an attempt to be racist. Hugs
I was not sure whether to put this under corruption or racism. But as they are clearly using race, skin color, and language/accents to stop and detain people, racism won the toss. Hugs
OK more bigotry if not racism. The joy these people get from forcing kids to be cis or straight rather than let people just express themselves as they are is something I don’t understand. Seriously, why the need to go against all the medical science, medical studies that show conversion therapy to not only not work but to be very harmful to those who experiance it. It is torture and child abuse. Kids who are forced into it, who have to suffer through conversion therapy are much more likely to try to commit suicide. For what goal, to please their god? Their god created the trans / gay person as trans or gay.
The Army felt it was important enough breach of regulations and rules along with a waste of taxpayer money to suspend and investigate those involved. Pete Kegseth our Fox host wannabe big time war general secretary of defense over ruled their decision and undermined their authority because it looked cool. He is acting like a 10 year old boy playing army with his toys. Kegseth also illegally removed 4 officers from being promoted to flag rank. Two because they were female and two because they were black. The rest he wanted to be promoted were white men of course. Hugs
More illegal actions by the wannabe dictator and his administration who believe anything tRump mumbles is the law of the land and they do not have to follow any rule or law. Hugs
tRump illegally deciding that his administration can decide who gets to vote and how voting is done. All by his decree. The dear leader has spoken. Hugs
More crime? Why am I surprised that people that rioted and attacked the US Capitol, breaking in and causing mass damage might not respect the laws? In that act they assaulted police, staff, and tried to kill congress members. Hugs
Spring is here, and so is a shift in what’s circulating. Flu season is officially behind us, tick season is just getting started, and a new Covid-19 variant is making the rounds in the news and on social media (but has not yet been felt in hospitals). And with Lyme disease season upon us, the news of a long-awaited vaccine couldn’t be more timely, though there are some real caveats worth understanding.
Here’s what’s going on and, more importantly, what it means for you.
Disease “weather” report: what’s spreading right now?
Good riddance, fluseason. We are officially out, as rates have now fallen below the “epidemic threshold.” Some states are still high, like New Mexico, but the trend is the same. The other main fall/winter viruses, including RSV and Covid-19 are all decreasing, too.
Odds are that if you get sick in the next month or two, it will be the common cold (the gray line below). This will continue to increase until May/June.
Percent of positive tests for respiratory viruses. Source: NREVSS; Annotated by Your Local Epidemiologist
Enter tick season. Emergency department visits for tick bites are low but climbing, which is normal for this time of year. Expect two waves: one peaking in May and another in mid-October. By year’s end, more than 500,000 people will likely be diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease.
Ticks thrive in warm, lush spring environments and can carry pathogens responsible for over a dozen diseases. Lyme is the most well-known. It can cause flu-like symptoms and, if untreated, serious complications including neurological and cardiac issues.
Not all ticks carry disease. Risk depends on the species, geography, and duration of a tick’s attachment. Currently, tick-borne illnesses are most concentrated in the Northeast, with emergency department (ED) visits at 13 per 100,000 people.
What this means for you: You can take several steps to protect yourself from ticks, including applying DEET or picaridin, treating clothing and gear with products containing 0.5% permethrin, and conducting thorough tick checks after engaging in outdoor activities. Here is a YLE deep dive on tick threats.
A new Covid-19 variant is getting attention. What’s going on?
Covid-19 continues to mutate, and the latest variant attracting attention is BA.3.2 (nicknamed “Cicada”), a descendant of Omicron that has been circulating globally for some time.
BA.3.2 now accounts for 11% of U.S. cases, but it’s too early to tell how quickly it’s growing. What is clear is that it has yet to trigger a surge. Wastewater levels, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations all remain low. Historically, a variant doesn’t drive a significant new wave until it reaches ~50% of cases.
% of circulating variants for Covid-19. Source: CDC; Annotated by Your Local Epidemiologist.
What’s drawing attention is the spike protein, which has 75 mutations compared with the strains included in last fall’s Covid-19 vaccines. The spike protein acts like a key that unlocks our cells, and when that key changes enough, existing antibodies struggle to recognize and block it. Lab studies confirm this is happening, but antibodies are just one layer of defense. The immune system has other tools that protect against serious illness, and current immunity is expected to hold up.
One thing researchers are actively tracking: early signals suggest BA.3.2 may be infecting kids at higher rates than previous variants. It’s hard to know whether this is real or just random chance, but if it is real, it’s likely due to a combination of many factors. For example, younger kids might not have seen as many Covid-19 variants or had as many coronavirus infections as adults, so they might be less immune to it.
Q: Could this cause a spring/summer wave? A: We have very little data on how fast this is growing, so time will tell. My guess is this will cause a spring/summer wave, but not a nothing burger or a tsunami.
Q: Should people over 65 get a spring Covid-19 shot? A: If it’s been at least three months since your last dose, a spring shot is a reasonable call. Timing it around May or June tends to align well with how Covid-19 seasons typically play out.
Q: Is a second shot within a year a booster? Or is it only a booster if the formulation is different? A: The term gets thrown around loosely. Generally, a booster means a repeat dose of the same vaccine, not necessarily a new formulation. The strains for the next updated Covid-19 vaccine haven’t been selected yet, so there’s no new version available right now. If a pharmacist tells you there’s no booster available, they may be thinking specifically of an updated formulation. A repeat dose of the current vaccine is still an option worth asking about.
Q: Could BA.3.2 spark the next pandemic? A: No. In fact, researchers have argued that another coronavirus pandemic is now less likely, not more, precisely because Covid-19 and the vaccines that followed built widespread, robust immunity across the global population.
A Lyme disease vaccine may finally be on the horizon
Ticks spread Lyme disease, one of the most common and debilitating infections in the country, and for the first time in over two decades, a vaccine to prevent it may finally be on the way. The only vaccine we had before, LYMErix, was pulled from the market in 2002. Not because it was unsafe (the FDA found no real problems) but because rumors about arthritis side effects, amplified by bad press and lawsuits, scared people.
Now Pfizer and French vaccine company Valneva have announced their new vaccine candidate worked in more than 70% of cases in a large late-stage trial of 9,400 people aged five and older.
How does the Lyme disease vaccine work?
The vaccine works differently from most other vaccines in a very cool way. Instead of just protecting you, it actually works inside the tick:
The vaccine trains your body to make antibodies against a protein (called OspA) found on Lyme-causing bacteria.
When a tick bites you, it drinks your blood along with those antibodies.
The antibodies neutralize the bacteria in the tick’s gut, stopping it from ever reaching its salivary glands and getting into you.
Graphic from Janet Loehrke at USA TODAY. Annotated by Your Local Epidemiologist.
But there are a few things worth understanding
The trial hit a statistical snag. The trial had fewer Lyme disease cases than expected, making the results too uncertain to be conclusive. Researchers had planned two ways to measure the vaccine’s effectiveness before the study began: one starting 28 days after the final dose, which fell just short of the required confidence threshold, and one starting the day after the final dose, which cleared it. Pfizer cited both results in deciding to seek regulatory approval.
The regulatory path is murky.The manufacturer will seek FDA approval, and if granted, the vaccine will go to ACIP for a policy recommendation. The problem: ACIP currently has no members. What happens next is genuinely unclear.
The bigger question is whether people will actually use it. The vaccine requires four doses over about a year, plus what looks like an annual booster before tick season. That’s a real commitment. Lyme disease is far better known today than it was in 2002, which gives people more reason to seek protection. But wanting a vaccine and completing every dose are two very different things.
Good news
Big Tech’s Big Tobacco moment. Last week, a Los Angeles court found Meta and YouTube negligent in the design of their platforms, ruling that features like infinite scroll and autoplay deliberately built addiction into the apps, and that executives knew it and failed to protect young users. The decision could set a precedent for more than 1,500 similar pending cases.
TB rates are falling after years of post-pandemic rise. New CDC data show that last year, 10,260 TB cases were reported, representing a 2% decline in the national rate compared with the year before. Cases fell across 26 states and Washington, D.C.
Birthday celebration! Remember that infant botulism outbreak? Amy Mazziotti, mother of Hank, who was hospitalized for 12 days for botulism after drinking ByHeart baby formula, just celebrated Hank’s first birthday. She received a letter from the public health response team that helped her. Each year, this public health team mails roughly 200 cards to babies who recovered from botulism. Program assistant Robin Hinks decorates them with drawings, like frogs in party hats and penguins with balloons. A small, loving, above-and-beyond act. Read more about this from Matt over at YLE CA.
Bottom line
The seasonal transition brings real shifts in disease risk, and a little awareness goes a long way. Have a wonderful week!
Love, YLE
Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) is founded and operated by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD—an epidemiologist, wife, and mom of two little girls. YLE reaches over 425,000 people in over 132 countries with one goal: “Translate” the ever-evolving public health science so that people will be well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions.
A newly introduced bill at the Colorado State Capitol would allow LGBTQ individuals to sue for damages caused by so-called conversion therapy, or therapy aimed at changing the sexual orientation or gender identity of a person.
The practice was banned in Colorado in 2019, and the American Medical Association – among other medical and mental health organizations – has said it is ineffective and can lead to depression, anxiety, and other psychological injuries.
DENVER, CO – JANUARY 14: Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie in front of the House Gallery starts the 2026 legislative session at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver, Colorado on January 14, 2026.RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Sponsors of HB26-1322 say many of those harmed by the therapy don’t come forward for years. Their bill would eliminate the statute of limitations in cases involving conversion therapy.
Individuals could sue their therapists, facilities that hired the therapists, and anyone who knew or should have known about the therapy and didn’t take reasonable steps to stop it.
Plaintiffs could recover economic and punitive damages if they could prove that the therapy was a substantial factor in their psychological injuries.
The bill is sponsored by State Representatives Alex Valdez and Karen McCormick in the House and State Senators Lisa Cutter and Kyle Mullica in the Senate.
The House Judiciary Committee will hear the bill this Wednesday.
Now and then, I post here from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day. I read there every day; it’s a good way to begin the day online, for me. Anyway, today, there is a link, Jigsaw Galaxy: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day So, being curious, I clicked it, and it’s pretty neat. If you like to do jigsaws, take a look!
Project 2025 was very clear. The goal is to remove all representation of LGBTQ+ people from society. Pride flags are determined to be political incitement and agitation; media representation and books with even an LGBTQ+ character are called sexualizing children while the same with straight kids is not, and letting a child express how they deeply feel inside by letting them change their hairstyle and clothing is called child abuse while doing the discredited / harmful conversion therapy to force a person of any age to be straight and cis is considered to be healthy for the child. Lies are spread constantly about puberty blockers by people who misrepresent what these medical studies show or only claim in fake medical studies that have no peer reviewed status by medical personnel in that field of study. The goal is to do what Russia, Hungary, and several other highly religious authoritarian countries have done, which is to wipe the existence of anything not straight and not cis from being. I don’t know if this is due to their being highly religious and wanting to force everyone in the country to live by their church doctrines or if they just are straight / cis so they don’t think if they don’t feel it that it can’t be true. I ran into that decades ago as a gay man with straight people claiming everyone was straight because they were and that was normal, but some people choose to be weird deviants and have bad types of sex. But if you ask them when they chose to be straight they think it is a stupid question as they never chose; they just were. Clips below. Hugs
“They go in the bathroom they’re supposed to, they upset people. If they go in the one that they now look like, they’re breaking the law, which could include pretty severe penalties” Guthrie told senators. “ … We seem to be really focused on this space and ignoring the fact that there are people that are just like us, human beings, just like us. What are they supposed to do?”
‘Do I feel like going to jail today, or do I feel like being attacked?’ trans man testifies
The bill builds on a wave of anti-LGTBQ+ bills that the Legislature and the governor have approved in recent years.
“Over the last several years, legislators have gone from refusing to protect us to actively targeting us,” Nikson Mathews, who serves as chair of the Idaho Democratic Queer Caucus, said at a news conference in February.
“Every single day when I’m out in public, I have to decide: Do I feel like going to jail today, or do I feel like being attacked,” Mathews told lawmakers.
A bathroom sign as seen on March 16, 2026, at the State Capitol Building in Boise. (Photo by Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)
The Idaho Legislature widely approved a bill that would criminalize “willfully” entering public and government bathrooms and changing rooms designated for another sex.
The bill — which heads to Gov. Brad Little for final consideration — would effectively block transgender people from using their preferred public bathrooms in Idaho, expanding on the state’s transgender bathroom ban in public schools.
House Bill 752 would create criminal misdemeanor and felony charges for people who “knowingly and willfully” enter a bathroom or changing room designated for the opposite sex, with some exceptions. The bill would apply in government-owned buildings and places of public accommodations, like private businesses.
A first offense would carry a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison. A second offense within five years would be a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.
Only three states — Utah, Florida and Kansas — have criminal bans on trans people using bathrooms that align with their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group.
In a statement, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates — Idaho called the bill “the most extreme anti-transgender bathroom ban in the nation.”
One Republican opposed the bill in the Senate
In the Idaho Senate, the bill passed on a near-party line 28-7 vote Friday, with all six Democrats opposing. One Republican, Sen. Jim Guthrie, from McCammon, broke with Republicans support of the bill.
He called legislation like it “harmful.”
“They go in the bathroom they’re supposed to, they upset people. If they go in the one that they now look like, they’re breaking the law, which could include pretty severe penalties” Guthrie told senators. “ … We seem to be really focused on this space and ignoring the fact that there are people that are just like us, human beings, just like us. What are they supposed to do?”
Idaho Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene, walks through the halls at the State Capitol building on Jan. 9, 2023. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun)
Bill sponsor Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene, told senators that the bill protects “common sense realities.”
“The Legislature has a fundamental duty to protect the bodily privacy and safety of Idaho citizens,” Toews said. “House Bill 752 provides a clear, proactive tool to secure sex-separated private spaces in our state, while accommodating common-sense realities.”
Once the bill is transmitted to Little, he has five days to decide on it. He has three options: sign it into law, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature.
In the House, the bill passed on a 54-15 vote earlier this month, with six Republicans joining the House’s nine Democrats in opposition.
‘Do I feel like going to jail today, or do I feel like being attacked?’ trans man testifies
The bill builds on a wave of anti-LGTBQ+ bills that the Legislature and the governor have approved in recent years.
And for more than a decade, efforts to add anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people to state law have failed.
“Over the last several years, legislators have gone from refusing to protect us to actively targeting us,” Nikson Mathews, who serves as chair of the Idaho Democratic Queer Caucus, said at a news conference in February.
Mathews, a trans man with a beard, told a House committee earlier this year that the bathroom bill would force him to use the women’s restroom.
“Every single day when I’m out in public, I have to decide: Do I feel like going to jail today, or do I feel like being attacked,” Mathews told lawmakers.
A 2025 study by the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute found “no evidence of increased harms to people who are not transgender when transgender people are allowed to use restrooms and other gendered facilities according to their identity.” But when trans people are refused access to facilities that align with their gender, the study found that trans people report verbal harassment and physical assault.
Bill is about discrimination, Democratic senator says
Sen. Ron Taylor, a Democrat from Hailey, said the bill is about discrimination. He said constituents told him that they’d move out of Idaho if it passed — because it would throw their transgender children in jail.
Idaho state Sen. Ron Taylor, D-Hailey, enters the House of Representatives chamber for the governor’s State of the State Address on Jan. 12, 2026, at the State Capitol in Boise. (Photo by Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)
“Now maybe that’s what some of us want, is to chase a population that’s marginalized out of Idaho,” Taylor said. “But that’s not Idaho. Idaho was founded by a population that was marginalized.”
Sen. Brian Lenney, a Republican from Nampa, said the bill is about keeping women and girls safe from having men in their spaces.
“Trans women aren’t women,” said Sen. Joshua Kohl, a Republican from Twin Falls. “They’re men. And they need to be treated as such.”
Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle, listens to proceedings during the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee meeting on Jan. 13, 2026, at the State Capitol Building in Boise. (Photo by Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)
Sen. Jim Woodward, a Republican from Sagle in North Idaho, said the bill is largely borne out of an event where he said a man was found in a women’s locker room in a YMCA in Sandpoint. He said he’d vote for the bill, but he had some reservations.
“What comes next and how much further do we venture inside of a private building?” Woodward said. “I don’t support the punitive measures in this bill, but the policy does reflect the sentiment of my community, and so for that reason, I will support it. It is the best for the most.”
Sen. Melissa Wintrow, a Boise Democrat, said she saw people crying after a recent committee hearing on the bill.
“They were crying because they just didn’t feel as if they were human. That a simple little thing they had to do, like go to the bathroom, would have to be in a law,” Wintrow said.
Idaho Fraternal Order of Police opposed the bill
The bill was opposed by some law enforcement groups and several transgender Idahoans.
The bill outlines several exceptions, including to give medical assistance, law enforcement assistance, and if someone “is in dire need of urinating or defecating and such facility is the only facility reasonably available at the time of the person’s use.”
The Idaho Fraternal Order of Police flagged that exception as concerning.
“Officers responding to a complaint would be placed in the difficult position of determining an individual’s biological sex in order to enforce the statute,” Idaho Fraternal Order of Police President Bryan Lovell wrote. “In many circumstances, there is no clear or reasonable way for officers to make that determination without engaging in questioning or investigative actions that could be viewed as invasive and inappropriate.”
Kyle Pfannenstiel
Kyle Pfannenstiel is a reporter for the Idaho Capital Sun, covering health care and state politics. He previously reported for the Post Register/Report for America, Idaho Education News and the Idaho Press. Kyle is a military brat who calls Idaho home. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from University of Idaho.
Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Well, I’m dying soon. I’ve got a cough, runny nose, bit of a head-ache. It’s over for me.
I’m devastated, destroyed! I can’t do housework like this, I might sneeze! You women won’t understand.
In all seriousness, perhaps men do complain about not feeling well far more than women do. But, see – it’s how we look at the world. For a man, not feeling well is a direct evidence of something being broken, something we have no way to fix and can hope only that someone else can fix the problem – or at best suffer until we are back under warranty. Women, on the other hand, do look upon illness as a direct evidence of something broken, and they very much do complain about it – do not let the meme lie to you. But the real difference is that women are very familiar with dealing with broken things, things that shouldn’t be, and they just go on with their day mainly because the man in her life hasn’t fixed that thing that’s broken yet.
Hugs Everyone! – I mean, you know, from across the room. You don’t want this cold….
The Anna’s Hummingbird is a characteristic and charismatic species of coastal Central, Southern, and Baja California, although this species has expanded its range northward along the Pacific Coast and eastward into the Desert Southwest. Like the Rufous Hummingbird, Anna’s is well known for its aggressive territorial behavior. Males fiercely defend feeding areas, where they chase away other male hummingbirds and even large insects such as bumblebees and hawk moths that try to feed there.
Although the Anna’s Hummingbird readily feeds from non-native plants, wild plants are still crucial to these birds — and the birds are just as critical to these native plants. Anna’s Hummingbirds are important pollinators of the chaparral flora of coastal California. Many of these plants flower in the winter months, coinciding with California’s wet season. To take advantage of this boon of nectar, Anna’s Hummingbirds in coastal California breed in what is the nonbreeding season for most North American species, nesting as early as mid-December. After the rains end, many hummingbirds will move up into the mountains to take advantage of blooms at higher elevations.
The Anna’s Hummingbird is a highly vocal species, especially for a hummingbird. Males sing a complex, scratchy-sounding song while perched and during their high-flying courtship spectacles. The male performs this diving display by first ascending to 100 feet or higher, then swooping toward the ground. At the bottom of his dive, he will be moving at about 60 miles per hour, just overhead of a female (or intruding male). At the last minute, he banks upward and flares his tail, causing his modified tail feathers to produce an explosive, high-pitched chirp. The gravitational force (“G-force”) caused by this maneuver would cause a human pilot to lose consciousness, but these little hummingbirds do it again and again, up to about 40 times back to back, when trying to impress a female. He also orients his dives to maximize the reflectance of his beautiful gorget — the gem-like patch of tiny iridescent purple-pink feathers on his throat. According to researchers Christopher Clark and Stephen Russell, from the perspective of a female, he looks like a “tiny, glowing magenta comet” plummeting towards her. (Snip-More on the page. Actually hear a hummingbird!)
The Emerald Tanager is truly a gem of the forest, roaming through the canopy in search of fruiting trees in the humid montane forests of Central and northern South America. Although primarily a fruit-eater, this species is also adept at hunting insects and other invertebrates on tree branches, deftly manipulating mosses with its bill in search of prey. This behavior sets it apart from other tanager species it often flocks with, but outside of the Emerald Tanager’s range, other specialized tanager species may fill this niche.
The Emerald Tanager’s relationship with moss extends beyond its foraging habits. Though their breeding biology is largely undescribed in peer-reviewed literature, the nests that have been observed have either been made of moss entirely or thoroughly covered in it. This, of course, provides good camouflage on the mossy branches where these tanagers build their nests. (Snip; MORE, and hear the Emerald Tanager)
Scottie's Playtime 