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Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna) is a medium-sized stocky hummingbird native to the west coast of North America. This bird was named after Anna Masséna, Duchess of Rivoli. In the early 20th century, Anna's hummingbird bred only in northern Baja California and southern California. The transplanting of exotic ornamental plants in residential areas throughout the Pacific coast and inland deserts provided expanded nectar and nesting sites, and the species was able to expand its breeding range greatly.
Anna's hummingbird is 3.9 to 4.3 in (9.9 to 10.9 cm) long. It has an iridescent bronze-green back, a pale grey chest and belly, and green flanks. Its bill is long, straight and slender. The adult male has an iridescent crimson-red derived from magenta to a reddish-pink crown and gorget, which can look dull brown or gray without direct sunlight, and a dark, slightly forked tail. Female Anna's hummingbirds also have iridescent red gorgets, though they are usually smaller and less brilliant than the males'. Anna's is the only North American hummingbird species with a red crown. Females and juvenile males have a dull green crown, a grey throat with or without some red iridescence, a grey chest and belly, and a dark, rounded tail with white tips on the outer feathers.
These birds feed on nectar from flowers using a long extendable tongue. They also consume small insects and other arthropods caught in flight or glean from vegetation. A PBS documentary shows how Anna's hummingbirds eat flying insects.[4] They aim for the flying insect, then open their beaks very wide. That technique has a greater success rate than trying to aim the end of a long beak at the insect. On rare occasions, bees and wasps may become impaled on the bill of an Anna's hummingbird, causing the bird to starve to death.
While collecting nectar, they also assist in plant pollination. This species sometimes consumes tree sap. The male's call is scratchy metallic, and it perches above head-level in trees and shrubs. They are frequently seen in backyards and parks, and commonly found at feeders and flowering plants.
A recent study found that the Anna's hummingbird can shake their bodies 55 times per second while in flight. This shimmy, when done in dry weather, can shake off pollen or dirt from their feathers similar to how a wet shake by a dog removes water. This rate of shaking is the fastest of any vertebrate on earth.
They have really fast reaction times. It was simply perched until it heard my shutter begin to move, and this is how far it had gotten by the time it was actually open. Wow.
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have many skeletal and flight muscle adaptations which allow the bird great agility in flight. Muscles make up 25-30% of their body weight, and they have long, bladelike wings that, unlike the wings of other birds, connect to the body only from the shoulder joint. This adaptation allows the wing to rotate almost 180°, enabling the bird to fly not only forward but also straight up and down, sideways, and backwards, and to hover in front of flowers as it feeds on nectar and insects.
During hovering, ruby-throated hummingbird wings beat 55x/sec, 61x/sec when moving backwards, and at least 75x/sec when moving forward.
Hummingbirds are small, colorful birds with iridescent feathers. Their name comes from the fact that they flap their wings so fast (about 80 times per second) that they make a humming noise. Hummingbirds can fly right, left, up, down, backwards, and even upside down. They are also able to hover by flapping their wings in a figure-8 pattern. They have a specialized long and tapered bill that is used to obtain nectar from the center of long, tubular flowers. The hummingbird’s feet are used for perching only, and are not used for hopping or walking.
I was messing around in the garden, using an extension tube with my inexpensive 50mm lens to take macro shots. After awhile, a hummingbird showed up, so I took the tube off my lens and proceeded with a mostly futile attempt to capture an image of the little speed freak. I forgot that my camera was set on a slow shutter speed, so most of the shots I took were crap. I think I got 2 good ones out of about 60 shots *after* I remembered to adjust the shutter speed. Doh!