New Favorites

The local hummingbirds have now left, but I thought I would post a few more favorites before I move on to other subjects. This juvenile male looks very striking in this light. He will lose the white tips on his tail feathers after his first molt. The pattern on his throat will also become the gorget at that time.

I liked this image of two birds contesting the feeder, but I liked it mostly for the bokeh, those out of focus points of light that would be specular highlights if they were in focus.

There weren't nearly the opportunities I had hoped for to film hummingbirds at flowers this year. Some days, I sat for several hours and never had one approach the flowers I had set up as props. On this particular day, however, this little male worked over the entire hanging basket, allowing me to capture a number of images.

He must have liked the Torenia because it looks like the same hummingbird came back again later.

It can be very difficult to follow them and film them as they move from flower to flower because at times they move very quickly, spending only a split second at any one flower. At other times, they can spend quite a bit of time at one blossom — maybe as much as ten seconds or more. Maybe they particularly like the taste of that one blossom.