Amazing hummingbird photos

[janisian]

http://community-2.webtv.net/Velpics/HUM/

Make sure to click on Next (bottom right) as you finish each page; there are 5 in all.

[ponytail]

Incredible photos, Janis! Thank you for sharing them. In person, I've never seen a hummingbird that wasn't at least partly blurred!:)

[DaveM]

Incredible photos, especially in light of the last one which shows the scale of the nest. Just FINDING a hummingbird nest is quite a feat--as the photos reveal, they are masters of camouflage.

Lovely little creatures, I must say.

[NinasSpaceChild]

*Takes a deep breath*

Beautiful and such berfect little nests too.

[sister rose]

awwww.....those are great! Thanks, Janis, for making me smile today. :)

[snakegrl]

Those are great shots. Thanks for sharing them.:)
A friend has a screened in porch surrounded by hummer feeders and sitting inside sounds like airplane engines with so many of those birds swarming about.

[Rickster]

Great pictures! Thanks Janis :)

[Eva]

Beautiful. Nature is astounding. They are so small but so perfect. Some bugs are even bigger it seems. Are hummingbirds the smallest birds or do smaller kinds exist? Does anyone know?

Eva

[Judy]

With such things in this universe I feel very small....

[Bat]

Those are beautiful pics. Thanks for sharing with us, Janis.
We don't have hummingbirds, but our yard is a sanctuary for the emerging babies who are learning to forage for themselves, with an occasional assist from moms...we have baby doves, robins, cardinals, chickadees, starlings and grackles, plus baby squirrels and chipmunks. They are so cute and fun to watch grow and learn, and they look so nice and clean in their first coats.
I especially like the checkered houndstooth jackets the baby robins and starlings sport! the height of fashion for pre-adolescent birds.

[KarenSews2]

No "hummybirds" have visited my feeders yet, this year, that I know of. I have seen an empty nest in the bush beneath my bathroom window in the winter, and my neighbor and I believe there is a nest in one of my Bradford pears. They are such intriguing little creatures!

I did get a peek at a baby robin on Sunday sitting in the magnolia outside another of the bathroom windows. Usually we see robins in the nest, and once they leave, we don't see them anymore as babies. This one was chubby, about as big as my fist, and his mottled chest was just getting the hint of orange. SO cute! And he sat there for the longest time! I got a picture, but not a very good one.

[SongDragon]

Cute! Hummingbirds always seem the most curious and unafraid to me... Simply too busy to stick around very long.

I think my Aunt had one of those at her house, because there certainly was a greedy-guts hummingbird that kept coming back, and when we took the feeder away (trying to put a new feeder out there, that he didn't like) he sat in the tree staring resentfully at it, and flew around it to let us know he wasn't interested in this new one. Their two little kids love watching the hummingbirds at the feeders, even though usually they don't have much patience for watching anything for a long time.

~Song

[Agnes]

Wow........ These are terrific photos! Thanks Janis!

[DaveM]

Would love to know what sort of flash/shutter speed was required to get these (thinking in "old" camera terms again). I can recall when, some years ago, Nikon came out with a 35mm equipped with a shutter capable of a 1/4000 of a second exposure. A lot of their advertising featured shots of hummingbirds "caught in flight" with the high speed shutter. Even at that speed, the wingtips were blurred a bit.

A hummingbird's heart beats at something like 1200 pulses per minute, and they can literally starve to death in as little as eight hours without food. Some believe that their metabolism is so fast that the movement of something like a human being, within reason, does not even register with them. Certainly it's easy enough to stand near a hummingbird feeder and seemingly be unnoticed. Though it doesn't work if you start waving a camera around.

[Dee]

Ken's parents used to live next to some rural woods in New Brunswick, from which Hummingbirds would emerge like little flying humming motors to feed at a red feeder his mom had hung on their front porch. I remember being fascinated by their speed. I was surprised to actually get a photo of one one morning as it hovered mere seconds at the feeder (using my old 35mm SLR camera) before darting back to the trees.

[david uk]

Those are amazing photos.... thanks for sharing them Janis x

[MadMusician]

"Oh hummingbird, mankind was waiting for you to come flying along..."
James Seals & Dash Crofts

[Dee]

Beautiful. Nature is astounding. They are so small but so perfect. Some bugs are even bigger it seems. Are hummingbirds the smallest birds or do smaller kinds exist? Does anyone know?

Eva

Hummingbirds (http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/birds/printouts/Hummerprintout.shtml) are tiny birds that can fly forwards and also hover in mid-air. They are called hummingbirds because when they fly, their wings often make a humming sound. Their tiny wings beat about 55 to 75 times each second! The average life span of a hummingbird is 3 years. Many hummingbirds migrate to find food during the cold winter. Hummingbirds are native to the Americas.

Anatomy: The biggest hummingbird is the Giant Hummingbird of South America; it weighs 20 grams. The smallest hummingbird (and also the smallest bird) is the Bee Hummingbird, which is about the size of a bee!

Most hummingbird's feet and legs are so small that they cannot walk or even hop; hummingbirds mostly use their legs and feet for perching (but the toes and claws are very long, and are used for perching). Hummingbirds are almost helpless on the ground.

Diet: Hummingbirds sip sweet nectar from flowers and eat some tiny bugs. They use their long tongue to lap up nectar.

Nest and Eggs: Hummingbirds make their tiny nests from lichens, spider webs, and plant down (fluffy seed coverings).

Predators: Many animals prey upon hummingbirds, including many other birds, like orioles, roadrunners, hawks, and flycatchers. Hummingbirds can also die when they are caught in spider webs.

[Patrick]

these are some great pictures! Nice to know Janis is also a birder.
Have some in my own yard, at the feeders, and the flowers.
Something else to pass on: there is some concern that the artificial colorings in some hummingbird feeder mixes may be harmful-the red coloring.
Its best, and cheaper, to make your own. Add 1 cup white sugar(NEVER brown sugar or honey) to 1 cup water, and bring to a boil. Add 3 cups cold water. Fill the feeder and store remainder in fridge. Its best to add fresh liquid every 3 or 4 days in hot weather, to prevent growth of harmful molds. And always keep your feeders clean, hot water and a brush work well.

[RedjackRyan]

ahh.. the miracle of nature. Great photos!

[DaveM]

Rather nice of nature to provide a bird to ride on the shoulders of very small pirates, isn't it?

I once held a hummingbird perched on my index finger for some time (it had collided with a window and stunned itself). A remarkable experience....the bird was about the length of the finger it held onto. You cannot imagine how careful one has to be in picking up something so delicate....it was like handling a butterfly.

[hoops]

thank you for the wonderful photograghs Janis. Like bat said, it makes ya feel kinda small in comparison

[moe75]

Has anyone every heard the sound of a hummingbird's heart beat? I have in my highschool biology course. Sound like a fast moving trilling sound you make with your tongue against the roof of your mouth and letting the air move over it. If you can make the frequency 1250 hertz that is.

http://www.net4tv.com/Voice/graphics/story/85_hummingbird3.gif

Here's a little thing I found on Hummingbirds as a totem (http://www.hummingbirdworld.com/h/totem.htm)while I was surfing around. Enjoy.

[Dee]

"In many traditional cultures of the western world the hummingbird has powerful religious and spiritual significance. In the high Andes of South America, for example, the hummingbird is taken to be a symbol of resurrection. This is because each hummer becomes lifeless and seems to die on cold nights, but it comes back to life again when the miraculous sunrise brings warmth."

Interesting, Moe! I didn't know this.

[snakegrl]

I recently took a workshop on animal communication. The instructor related her experience with a hummingbird. She was concerned about the use of refined sugar in hummer feeders, as was I. So, she asked a hummingbird how it felt when it drank the mixture. The response was," joy, joy joy joy".
There were no apparent ill effects.
Moe75, I have the cards and books you mentioned. I think they are decent lead-ins to a different awareness. Ted Andrews seems to have done his homework in collecting imfo. and maybe in practice as well, (as opposed to numerous other clumps of poularized pulp.)
Thanks for posting the link.

[Charlie]

Fantastic photos. We are lucky to have a diverse range of birds visiting our garden and flying nearby. Not seen anything as cute as those fledglings although fluffy baby blue tits are very funny when they first flit the nest