Most of these are smaller versions of images that will take you to a larger one. The image shown on the right, however, will take you to two animated images; one is of a ruby-thraoted hummingbird feeding one of her young (it's a 1.6mb file) and the other is a smaller file of a rubythroated hummingbird feeding from our nectar feeder.

For some time, I figured that the best possible way to photograph hummingbirds was to do all the focusing, set-up, etc. with the tripod in advance, choose my settings purposefully and be extremely prepared. This has been quite useful. It helped me get these photographs:

But sometimes, you have to throw that away. The photograph below taught me that. I had the lens all set up on the tripod but suddenly I realized that there was another bird and I was focused in too tight to get them both. So I quickly zoomed out and switched to autofocus and took a whole lot of shots. Of those, this was the only one that was worth anything:

Later, I discovered that if I'm lucky, I can get photos without even using the tripod at all. That's where dumb luck comes in. I was able to get these two photographs on different days by just sitting on my porch with the camera and having a hummingbird show up:

Another way to photograph these birds is to go where you know they will be. A friend of mine told me he had a hummingbird nest right outside his window. I really could not believe how close this was. The photo I got of the nest the first day was is this one:

Notice the thin strands on the nest. Those are spiderweb strands. Hummingbirds will use the sticky substance from spiderwebs to connect the lichen together to form the nest. They also use the webs to reinforce the nest's attachment to the tree. This tiny nest was in a tree that was blowing all over the place, but still held incredibly steady. One of the comments below gives this description from Barbara Kingsolver of the process of a hummingbird nest being built:

When the lump had grown big enough - when some genetic trigger in her small brain said, "Now, that will do" - she stopped gathering and sat down on her little tuffet, waggling her wings and tiny rounded underbelly to shape the blob into a cup that would easily have fit inside my cupped hand. Then she hovered up to inspect it from this side and that, settled and waddled with greater fervor, hovered and appraised some more, and dashed off again. She began now to return with fine filaments of shredded bark, which she wove into the webbing along with some dry leaflets and a slap-dab or two of lichen pressed onto the outside for curb appeal.

Thanks, Blissing for the addendum.

A couple weeks later, I got this shot:

A few days later, he let me know that the babies in the nest had hatched, so I went back again to get more photos of the babies:

Finally, I'd like to close with this Rufous Hummingbird.

Rufous Hummingbirds are rarely seen in the Northeast. But sometimes unusual hummingbirds pop up during migration time. This one showed up in November of 2007, at this woman's feeders in Westmoreleand, NH (those of you who did canvassing in NH during the primaries will know this town as being just north of Keene) and hung out for a few weeks. A friend of hers who was a birder asked if she'd give permission to stop by and check it out. She said sure.

We figured we'd check it out one morning and made our way through the back roads of Westmoreland and found her house far down a dirt road. She had a guestbook on the porch and was requesting people sign it.

Not only did the bird show up at the feeder multiple times, the feeder was on her porch and we were about six feet away at the time. That gave me the opportunity to not only photograph it, but to photograph it well enough that it ended up on the cover of the NH Audubon's New Hampshire Bird Records, Fall 2007:

Obligatory links:



Again, I hope you've enjoyed these photos. I've only ever seen these two kinds of hummingbirds. If I can handle the heat, some day I will go to Arizona to get a bunch of other types, but I just really hate the heat, so we'll see.

As usual, feel free to treat this as an open photography and/or birding thread.

I should mention: I don't post all my photographs on 'Kos, 'cause I take a lot of photographs. If you want weekly (or daily) e-mail alerts when I've put new photos on my web site, you can do so via this link.

Also, FYI, I'll be hosting this Sunday's Dawn Chorus. Here's a preview: