Or maybe someone on the bird watching forum could help you.

Gardenweb Birdwatching forum

Rusty

Could it be a Black-chinned?

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-chinned_Hummingbird/id

Remember that females and the young often have different coloration than the males. If you are not seeing a lot of aggression between them you may only have the female and young.

I'd also guess a black chinned. Smallest of the California native species and a year round resident. And neither the male or the female are very colorful compared to other hummers.

You are right. Black chinned. They are hard to see in detail. I don't recall seeing them before this, but right now they dominate my back yard. In previous years I had the green Annas, but they did not stop here this year.

Your green Annas may have passed by if the Black Chinned got there first. Black chinned hummers are territorial especially during nesting and rearing season. The females are larger than the males and juvenile Black Chinned Hummers have markings that resemble the female. The female constructs the nest and lays 2 eggs per brood. Black Chinned hummingbirds are common in west US and may be year around residents in some places.

I have mostly Allen's hummingbirds, and they are year-round residents here in Los Angeles but have a limited range in the U.S. The males have red chins, are small, and are extremely territorial, driving off Anna's that are much larger.

Oh, I thought I just had a few hummers who were runts. :)

Black chinned are the same size as broadtailed and Rufous. I'd never describe black chinned, as small or short tailed. We have Caliope, one of the smallest hummingbirds....and they really are not that much smaller.

I'd never have guessed by your description it was a black chinned, not colorless, they flash a purple gorget in sunlight.

Interesting to find out....

Compared to the more colorful hummingbirds that I have had here for over 20 years, these black chinned hummingbirds have stubby tails!

FWIW, Allen's, Anna's, rufous, black chinned and calliope hummers are all about the same size....somewhere between 3 and 3.5 inches. And compared to the others, black chinned do tend to have pretty stubby tails :-)

Mine are all black chinned this year too. They definitely flash purple when the sun hits them just right. They're aggressive little monsters and they don't like it when I get too close to their strawberry tree.

gardengal.....the Calliope hummingbird is "the smallest bird in North America" according to this site. Smallest it says

Yup, calliope is the smallest.

C'mon....it's all relative, for heaven's sake! We are talking about a difference of maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch at most. In my book that is all very close to being the same size.

Shaking head at people picking nits............