Tag Archives: hummingbird

Hummingbird Guarding The Icicle

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We try to keep the feeders stocked up for the hummingbirds.  However, while there is never a shortage, they still get very competitive about access with dominant birds trying to keep the others away.  If only they understood!  As the temperature dropped and I imagine their food sources got sparser, one of the hummers decided to take up residence on the arm that the feeder hangs from.  If I went outside, it would fly away but would immediately return as soon as I was gone.  It meant it was easier photographing it through the window.  The icicle hanging beneath it is a measure of the chilly conditions.

How Close Can I Get To The Hummingbirds?

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We had a quiet time with the hummingbirds in our back yard for a while.  I am not sure where they went but they were not on the feeders very often.  However, that has changed as summer has rolled on and we now have a ton of them in the yard, often fighting with each other over who gets to feed.  I decided to go and stand out near one of the feeders and stay still to see whether I could get closer to them or not.  Little did I realize how uninterested in me that they were.

After I had been there a few minutes, they came in to feed and also to check me out.  They would fly up to me and then move around me, stopping as they went.  I seemed to be a curiosity for a moment and then they lost interest.  Instead they would start sparring with each other.  Some dramatic aerial jousting would take place, often around me.  It must have been something to see from our deck because it felt amazing being there.  No pictures of that because it all happened at high speed but I was able to get some shots of them as they hovered near the feeder at the times when they weren’t in battles.

Hummingbirds On Real Plants

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I have taken a ton of photos of the hummingbirds that come to our feeders in the back yard.  However, a cooler shot is one that involves real plants rather than a metal feeder.  We have hanging baskets which have sometimes provided food for the little critters but the majority of the flowers in our baskets this year do not seem to have interested them.  Only one of the flowers seems to get some of them to feed and it is a narrow trumpet shaped flower that seems to thrive on the far side of the basket away from me and the light.

Of course, the sun does move so, with a little patience and forethought, it is possible to get in position and try to stay very still so as not to scare away the blighters.  I have had some backlit results but they aren’t very appealing photos.  They are better than nothing but getting on the right side of things is the goal and one I have finally managed to achieve.  If I could get better angles, that would improve things but there are a good start.  Now to spend more time waiting for them and try to avoid freaking out the neighbors in the meantime.

Hummers on Real Flowers

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With the feeders in our backyard, I have been able to shoot plenty of photos and videos of the hummingbirds coming in to feed.  This has been a lot of fun but it has always lacked a little something because of the artificial nature of the environment.  Our recent acquisition of new hanging baskets for the backyard has changed this a bit.  They are plenty of tiny flowers in these baskets and these have appealed to some of the hummers.

Not all of them, though.  The majority still seem to prefer the sugar water in the feeders but some like to work their way around the flowers.  This requires a lot more flexibility from the hummingbird to get in to the flowers but they make it look so simple.  The flowers are only in sun for part of the day so some of the shots I have got have been in shade while others have been better lit.  What matters, though, is that a bird against a flower backdrop has a far more natural feel to it than when they are feeding from one of the artificial food suppliers.

I spent most of the time getting stills of them working around the flowers.  It all looks good when you are watching it but only certain angles make for good photos.  I did get some video too so a little edit of that is included below.

Shadows of a Hummingbird

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I have shot endless hummingbird photos in the backyard at home.  There was one shot that eluded me for a while.  At a certain time of day, if a hummingbird is at the feeder, its shadow will fall on the post on the corner of our deck.  I have seen it a few times when I didn’t have a camera handy and have had a camera when none came or the light moved around too quickly.  However, I did finally get the combination I was after.  I like the hint of the hummingbird without the actual bird in shot that it delivers.

Rufous Versus Anna’s Hummingbirds

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We have plenty of hummingbirds visiting our back yard.  They may look different depending on the angle the light hits their feathers but up until recently I had thought that they were all the same species – the Anna’s hummingbird.  Then we got a visitor that seemed different.  First, instead of having a grey look to the feathers, it was a lot more brown.  The other difference was the sound of the wingbeats.  Instead of the whirring noise we were used to, this one had a higher pitched sound almost like a click as the wings were hitting each other.  It sounded quite distinctive.  I trip to my big book of birds suggests that these may be Rufous hummingbirds.  For the birders amongst you, I hope you will advise if I am mistaken.

New Hummer Feeder Improves the Light

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We have been having some issues with our hummingbirds.  One of them has decided the feeder is his and no other birds can use it.  He sits around and feeds to his heart’s content.  Even when he is in a local tree, anyone coming close gets chased off quickly.  We have named him “Cartman”.  One of the recommendations in such a situation is to have a second feeder so we have added one to the fence nearby.  One of the benefits I have found with this is that it puts the birds at a different angle between me and the light and it brings out the colors more vibrantly.  Here you can see Cartman – he is still trying to dominate the place.

More Hummingbird Video

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Having had some success with the GoPro as discussed in a previous post, I decided to play with the slow motion capabilities of the camera to get some different shots.  The nice thing with a GoPro is that you can put it almost anywhere to get different angles.  While playing with this, some hummers came in to feed and, since I had my phone with me, I shot some video with that too.  They really didn’t seem too bothered by my presence.  Here is some more video results.

Videoing the Hummingbirds

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Sometimes you just forget what you have tucked in the garage.  I have been trying to get shots of the hummingbirds in our back yard and more recently shot a little video with the DSLR.  Then it occurred to me that they might be wary of people but not of inanimate objects.  Why not stick a camera on a post right next to the feeder.

While it hasn’t had much use recently, I have a GoPro (or two).  I have an adaptor that would sit on top of a lighting stand which is plenty tall enough to get up to the height of the feeder.  Moreover, I can control it all remotely using a phone/tablet including a live video feed.  I sat indoors with the iPad on watching for movement on screen while doing other things.  As soon as one appeared, a press of the button and they were being recorded.  The initial attempts failed until I remembered to switch off the beeps and the LEDs that flash during recording.  After that it was easy.  The results were rather pleasing.

More Luck With Hummers/Iridescence at the Right Angle

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My obsession/interest in photographing the hummingbirds in our back garden has continued.  I mentioned my poor early attempts in this post but things have gradually been improving.  I have decided to compromise on quality a bit by shooting from indoors.  The birds are clearly not enthusiastic about me being there with the camera so I decided that shooting through the window was an alternative.  Obviously double glazed windows are not optically ideal but they are surprisingly good it seems.  This has allowed me to get a number of shots I am a lot happier with.

One thing that I have seen much more of when shooting from this location is the way in which the color of the feathers varies so dramatically depending on the angle to the light.  The birds normally look very gray.  The backs can start to be green when the light strikes at the right angle but the most dramatic changes are for the head and throat.  Here a gray feather can suddenly transition to a pink of bright red.  It only takes a very small change in angle for this to become apparent.