Originally posted by Jimbo I have never gotten a great shot of a Hummer! Always too far away. JIM
You will, just don't give up. I believe what Paleo Pete said about them being easy going sometime. This one did the same thing as he mentioned and hovered just a few feet in front of me for a few second to check me out and then landed not too far off. I walked up to about 6 feet from it while she just sat taking a cat nap.
What I am saying is you'll get your opportunity.
BTW thanks for the comment.
Originally posted by Paleo Pete Hummers can be difficult to identify, I got one of my bird books because of a Black Chinned Hummingbird that showed up at our feeder a few years ago, and was not in any of my books. This one is a female I'm almost certain, and females are really difficult, the best way is to see them with the males close by and ID by association.
The Black Chinned has a black chin, of course, and a purple band (gorget) under it. Only on the males, and he has to be in the right lighting to see it at all, the feathers are iridescent and the color only shows up under certain angles of light. This is true with all hummers. I see mainly Ruby Throated Hummingbirds here, and quite often the red chin is just a dark grey. The Black chin that showed up was an anomaly, the only one I've seen so far.
Jimbo - Hummers are pretty easy going, but not with each other. Humans don't bother them much. Set up a feeder and put a chair a few feet away, in an hour they will be zooming up to the feeder like you're not there, once they find the feeder. They will also look for the feeder next year in the exact same spot. Wear a shirt or cap with a red spot on it about the size of a baseball and quite often one will zoom in and hover right in front of you checking it out from a foot or two away.
That happened to me last week when I wore a t-shirt with a red logo the size of a golf ball. A Ruby Throat hovered a foot in front of me checking out my shirt for about 5 seconds, then decided it wasn't a flower and flew away. Not a chance at a picture, I had the 135mm lens on, it has a minimum focus distance of about 4 feet, and if I had moved he would have flown anyway. Move slowly and they won't spook easily, you can turn and lean closer, whatever you need to do and you will get some good shots. No sudden moves though. I took a lot of hummer shots last week, managed to get a half dozen that were keepers. All from less than 15 feet away.
You are right in finding it hard to identify. I really don't believe its a Ruby-Throat because they don't range here. I think I ID'd it properly but I still am second guessing myself because it could possibly be an Anna's Humingbird.
Thanks for all the info.
BTW, I would love to see some of the shots you took last week.