Ruby-Throated Hummingbird 3

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird 3

This is the last in the hummingbird series and today's photos show female ruby-throated hummingbirds that visited my son's hummingbird feeder in Nova Scotia.

Yesterday one person said that she loved hummingbirds but all the photos she takes are out of focus. First of all, hummingbirds move very quickly and by the time you catch a glimpse of them it is probably too late to get a photograph. That's why I chose to sit near a feeder. I watched them through a window for a while and observed that they fly in, drink from the feeder, back off a second or two to swallow, then go back for more. This seemed to be the norm and I figured that if I focussed on the feeder and waited, I would be able to capture a few images of them feeding, then when they backed off, capture a few of them hovering without the feeder in view. You will notice that the bird's head is pointed up which indicates it is swallowing.

The second advantage I had was the fast focussing and shooting speed on my Canon EOS. I don't think I would have been able to capture the same photos with the much slower NIkon Coolpix P500, which I also had with me As a result I was able to get 9-12 images in the few seconds the bird fed or hovered. In a few cases the female drank, swallowed then returned to the feeder a few times allowing me to get several photos. If the bird backed away from the feeder at an odd angle, it was difficult to focus and I did have many images that were blurry. The 70-300 mm lens I used had Image Stabilizion (IS) which also helps avoid out of focus photos because of camera movement.

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