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These birds are year round in my area. The brightness of the yellow on the male fades when winter rolls in, then it's hard to tell the male from the female. They all start to look like sparrows to me.
Really, how do you get a shot like that? We don't see them in the daytime that much. Or when we do they move so damn fast. We sit in our screened-in back porch maybe 5' from the feeder as the sun is going down. We are playing music, shooting the breeze, enjoying adult beverages, and the hummingbirds come one after another at that time. Maybe there is only two. Who can say? One always sits on the feeder and one never sits on the feeder. In any case, they fight all the time. I am amazed at a picture like that.
Thanks, Dave. They are extremely active even during the day at this time of season. Flying and fighting all day long. They will "buzz" us while we are on the deck. I was in the middle of the yard waiting for them to land here and there which they did. Sometimes they flew within a foot or two of me. I was shooting as they approached the feeder. Here's the original, lots of cropping as you can see. The good "glass" and better sensor on the camera (vs my older one) allows cropping while retaining a decent image. The original was a 7.2 mb file, the cropped photo is 1.7 and I'll add a few more of the shots, just because we all love these creatures. They are all cropped. A bit grainy, grabbed from FB My goal is to get a good shot with them feeding from a flower. Doubt it will happen this year.
The male ruby throated hummingbird has been doing a bit of "fence sitting" in the garden most of the day. The cucumber garden is right out my kitchen window. He continually chases the other birds off. I found out how bright the feathers of his throat are depend on how his head is positioned. Sometimes they look almost brown, other times, the bright red as in above photo. It also appears they use their little bill to scratch an itch. After dinner, I got a real treat when two dined at the feeder at one time. I know Patricia has seen this in Cali, but I don't think I've seen it more than once. Too bad I could not get both birds in focus...and this concludes my hummingbird watching and photography for the weekend.
08-17-2018, 04:20 AM
