The fabled Black Hummingbird (1 Viewer)

Could anybody help me with the identification of a Hummingbird.Whilst visiting California at Morro Bay in April we spotted our very first Hummingbird.
Having taken copious notes I imagined that subsequent perusal of the Sibley guide would pinpoint the bird with no problem. However I had not taken into account the the inability of Sibleys colour illustrations to depict irridescent colour.
We watched the bird through binos in full sunlight as it perched in the top branches of the scrub trees and made occasional flights to catch bugs.
It initially appeared to be all black and viewed in profile, perched, it still appeared all black or very very dark green. When it turned to face our viewing point a dazzling scarlet red bib was highlighted in the sunlight, I have never seen such bright plumage on any bird. Our viewing point with the sun behind us would have rendered colour rendition as good as it gets yet Sibley shows no bird with all dark plumage (black or irridescent green) and a brilliant scarlet bib. I cannot comment on relative size, length of bill etc due to my lack of hummingbird experience but I would have thought that such distinctive plumage would lead to identification
Could anybody enlighten me please

Try a Search in here, type in Hummingbird Any with a paper clip has a picture.

http://www.birdforum.net/bird_index.php

In San Diego in mid March there were many Anna's everywhere but not any others that I could id. I think Anna's sounds like your bird. I think they are in California (south, anyway) all the year round and generally outnumber everything else. Apparent plumage is very dependent on lighting conditions.

There is an error in clicking Back on the DB, it is on our list with Gallery Errors etc........
We Will Try and get them sorted today :t:

Mike, as Graham already offered, it sounds like an Anna's male based on the color of the gorget. (Of the other 4 spp that could occur around Morro Bay, only Allen's or Rufous could reflect a gorget this color; but those two spp have noticeable cinnamon coloring on them, not an all-green back as you described.)

Don't be too hard on poor Sibley -- I have yet to see any colors anywhere that can begin to capture the brilliance, much less the variability, of hummingbird gorgets. Rufous hummers' gorgets vary in color from bright yellow to green to orange to deep scarlet -- all on the same bird! Totally depends on how the light hits it at any one point. Even the iridescent green of most hummers' backs can look black in the "wrong" light.

Many thanks everybody for your help and advice.