View allAll Photos Tagged Hummingbird
Rocky Mountains outside Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1985, digital copy of slide. Complete indexed photo collection at WorldHistoryPics.com.
I have tried this summer to stop the wing motion of a hovering hummingbird. I love this photo of the bird.
attempt 1:
had a kenko 1.4x on it, gonna do the same image one more time w/o since cropping works just as well :D...
blown up it appears that the feeder is out of focus despite me pre-focussing w/ auto and then turning it to MF. I wonder if the kenko is really destroying IQ that much or if ISO 500 is really that bad.. on a 40D
Why do birds fly and how do birds fly? These questions have always been in my mind since I was a little girl. ....
In order to fly high in sky, birds have to do a lot of sacrifices and adaptation. Their hollow or semi-hollow bones form the lightweight skeleton. They evolved to lose all their teeth in replace of a lighter jaw. Unlike mammals convert ammonia waste in the form of urea, birds excrete uric acid, which does not dissolve in water easily, so there is not much water to be wasted or needed. In order to maintain the energy they need to fly, their high metabolism could produce feces in as less as 20 minutes after feeding. The most distinctive part distinguishing birds from all other animals is feathers. Not only do feathers play important roles in mating, territorial dominance and thermal regulation, the plumage at different ages and seasons protect birds from predators. Feathers provide a crucial function in most birds, to be able to fly. From the smallest number of feathers in Ruby-throated Hummingbird (about 1,000 feathers) to the most feathered Whistling Swan (over 25,000 feathers), birds control shapes of their wings and tail during flight, chasing and feeding, even use facial feathers as an auditory medium to carry sound into ears like in Barn Owl.
Fly is a symbol of freedom. Thanks to the modern technology of digital photography, it allows me to capture birds in flight that normal eyes could hardly glimpse such a beautiful action. Hummingbirds are migrating to the central and south America for the winter. According to my eBIRD record, they should be all gone by the mid of October. This is a sad month for me as saying farewell to my beloved birds. Would I be luckily enough to have a winter hummer visit my yard this year? I hope so and you will be the first one to know :)
Thanks for viewing and commenting my work :)
Molting male Anna's hummingbird. To me his jaunty pose with wings behind, tail up and the molting feathers looks like a little dragon.
Anna's Hummingbird is 3.9 to 4.3 inches (10 to 11 centimeters)long. It has a 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 crown and throat, and a dark, slightly forked tail. Anna's is the only North American hummingbird species with a red crown. Females and juveniles have a green crown, a grey throat with some red markings, 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 caught in flight. A PBS documentary that first aired January 10, 2010, shows how Anna's Hummingbirds eat flying insects (at 16:45). 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.
While collecting nectar, they also assist in plant pollination. This species sometimes consumes tree sap.