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Bird graphic print · 100% ring-spun cotton · seven garment-dyed colors · Comfort Colors 1717 · printed graphic, nothing stitched on
Garment-Dyed Cotton Tee · Seven Colors · Designed in Colorado
An Anna's hummingbird fluffed up on a snow-dusted twig, magenta crown catching the light — the only hummingbird that stays for winter, painted in watercolor with no text.
Garment-dyed 6.1 oz ring-spun cotton, soft from the first wear.
One male Anna's hummingbird, perched and puffed up against the cold the way they sit on a January morning — nearly a ball, not the sleek summer dart. The iridescent rose-magenta of the crown and throat, the emerald back, the grey-white chest and the needle of a bill are all painted in, with the gorget feathered into the white rather than cut off in a line. The twig runs the diagonal with snow caught in its forks, a few dried seed heads lean in below, and a handful of flakes are still falling. No feeder, no flowers, no sky, no painted background — the shirt color is the winter air. Watercolor on soft paper grain. No text, no slogan.
The Design
Large front-centered chest print — not a back print
Subject: a male Anna's hummingbird on a snow-dusted twig with dried seed heads, in light falling snow
Style: realistic watercolor bird illustration with soft paper grain — the magenta crown is the tell, and it reads as iridescent, not flat pink
No text. There is no lettering, slogan, place name or wordmark anywhere in this design
Technique: a printed graphic — the ink sits in the cotton, straight onto the garment color with no background panel, and nothing is stitched or sewn on
Shown in Blue Spruce. The print runs large and centered on the chest, straight onto the garment color — no panel, no frame, not a back print.
Every hummingbird in North America leaves for the winter except one. The Anna's stays — the whole Pacific coast from Baja to British Columbia, and these days inland too — a bird that weighs about as much as a nickel sitting on a frozen branch in January. It survives the nights by shutting down. In torpor its body temperature falls from 107 degrees to the low fifties and its heart slows from twelve hundred beats a minute to around fifty, so that for a few hours it is barely alive, and at first light it shivers itself back up and goes looking for sugar. It is the only North American hummingbird with a magenta crown as well as a magenta throat, and in the right light the whole head lights up like a struck match; turn it two degrees and it goes black. It is also one of the few hummingbirds that sings — a thin, scratchy song from the top of a bare tree in December, when nothing else is singing at all. The feeders people keep thawed on their porches did not teach it to stay. It was already staying. They just made it easier.
The Story Behind It
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The first hard freeze came in the second week of December, and she assumed the hummingbird was gone. She had been meaning to take the feeder in. Then, at 6:40 the next morning, it was there — a grey lump on the frozen feeder, not moving, so still she thought it had died on the perch. She went out in her slippers with the kettle.
It was not dead. As she got close it shook itself, the head went from grey to that impossible pink, and it drank from the thawed port while she stood there holding a kettle in the dark. That was the start of it. Two feeders after that — one inside overnight, one out, swapped at dawn — and a pair of hand warmers taped to the base on the worst mornings. Her husband said it was a lot of trouble for a bird. He also started getting up to do the swap on the days she could not.
It sang in January from the top of the bare plum tree — a scratchy little song nobody else in the neighborhood heard — and in March it was still there, and so was she. The feeder has not come in since.
✦ ✦ ✦
Wear it for the ones who stay, and for whoever gets up in the dark with the kettle.
A gift for the one who keeps the feeder thawed, the West Coast gardener, the birder who knows which hummingbird this is at a glance, or anyone who loves hummingbirds and has never had a winter one to wear. It is the hummingbird for the cold months — no flowers, no summer, no lettering — so it works for the person who loves the bird but would never wear the words. Pair it with the Winter Hummingbird Sweatshirt — the same bird in 9.5 oz fleece for the colder half of the season.
Details
Large front print, centered on the chest — not a back print
Relaxed unisex fit, short sleeve, crew neck
Ribbed collar, double-needle hems, twill-taped shoulder seams
Seven colors — Black, Blue Spruce, Pepper, Grey, Espresso, Brick and Orchid — every one in every size, S to 4XL
Ready-made design — choose a color and size, nothing to upload or customize
Made to order in the USA, printed and shipped in 2–5 business days
Fabric
Printed on a Comfort Colors 1717 garment-dyed heavyweight t-shirt blank
100% ring-spun US cotton, 6.1 oz — substantial without being stiff, and it softens with every wash
Dyed after the shirt is sewn, using salt-free pigment dyes, for the lived-in color that only garment dyeing gives
Pre-shrunk; holds its shape through the wash
The graphic will not crack or peel. It is printed flat into the cotton — no heavy vinyl patch, no rubbery texture, nothing to pull loose
Choosing a Color
The design is magenta, emerald, white and the brown of a bare twig, with a little snow — and no painted background, so the shirt color is the winter air.
Black. The highest contrast of the seven — the magenta head lights up like a struck match and every snowflake reads; the one on the hero photo and the one to start with.
Blue Spruce. Deep evergreen — the plum tree at dusk. The emerald back sits into it and the pink comes forward.
Pepper. A soft washed black, closer to charcoal. Nearly as dramatic as Black, a shade softer.
Grey. A soft heathered grey. A snow sky; quiet, and it wears with everything.
Espresso. Warm dark brown. The bird settles into it and the magenta and the snow carry it — the quiet one.
Brick. A deep washed red-brown, close to the bird's own color, so the white chest and the snow do the contrast.
Orchid. A pale washed lilac. Magenta on lilac is unexpected and sharp, and the one that reads least like a winter shirt — it will carry into spring.
Garment-dyed colors look softer and more muted in person than on a screen, and each piece varies slightly. That lived-in tone is part of the charm.
Sizing
Fit at a glance: relaxed fit, roomy through the chest · length hits at the hip · short sleeve falls to mid-upper arm · 6.1 oz heavyweight ring-spun cotton · runs true to size
A relaxed unisex cut that most people wear true to size. Size down one for a closer fit.
Adult sizes only, S to 4XL. Between sizes? We will make it right, free.
Care
Machine wash cold, inside out. Tumble dry low. Avoid bleach, high heat, and ironing directly over the artwork.
Pairs Well With
The same bird in fleece, the other small ones that stay, and the rest of the birds.
Winter Hummingbird SweatshirtWinter Chickadees SweatshirtGreat Horned Owl SweatshirtAll Bird DesignsWinter CollectionTwelve hundred beats a minute by day. Fifty by night. Still here in March.
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