Hummingbird

Posted by Tiff (Oregon, United States) on 9 May 2011 in Animal & Insect and Portfolio.

This is a shot of a Hummingbird in fight mode. Sometimes both males and females do shuttle-flights, which are rapid back and forth movements in front of another bird. During the shuttle flight, the tail and gorget may be displayed.

These past Hummingbird shots were taking here at my home in Peel, Oregon. The woman that owned the house before me was a Native American bird healer so she had been putting out feeders for the Hummingbirds 10 years before I moved in. They come every year and nest in the trees. I put out 7 feeders every Spring to September. It takes me a good hour to scrub and refill the feeders, right now I have been refilling 4 every other day. In mid Summer I usually refill all feeders every day. We go through large bags of sugar and scrubbing the feeders is a very important job for the safety of hummingbirds, if they get black mold in their mouths it kills them. I mix 1 cup sugar with 4 cups warm water for 1 feeder, let cool before hanging outside. Besides all the work in feeding them it is a joy and a challenge to take photographs of them. First thing I use is a lot of patience, holding still and also being quick enough to keep them in frame, they are so fast and they will leave if you move to quick. I have been hit in the head, stomach, and also peed on while trying to photo them lol. I don't use a tripod, that would be impossible. Some of my shots are with me balancing up on a ladder, shooting from inside the house through the window, or within 2 feet of the feeders to get different angles. I use a Nikon D90 set on 3D tracking focus point, Sport scene mode to freeze the wings, natural sunlight, jpeg fine image quality. Lens are 18-55, 18-105, this shot was with 55-200 vr standing about 5 feet away.

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