{"id":171861,"date":"2026-08-07T06:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T12:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=171861"},"modified":"2026-08-07T07:19:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:19:35","slug":"how-do-hummingbirds-avoid-pissing-themselves-to-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/07\/how-do-hummingbirds-avoid-pissing-themselves-to-death\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do Hummingbirds Avoid “Pissing Themselves To Death”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the last week or so I’ve been photographing hummingbirds in my yard almost exclusively – mostly female and juvenile Black-chinned Hummingbirds. I’ve been alternating between shooting them at the trumpet vine on the side of my house and the canna lilies in my garden.<\/p>\n

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The light is often marginal at both locations so very often I don’t have enough shutter speed to freeze their wings, but I can live with that as long as most of the rest of the bird is acceptably sharp.<\/p>\n

Of course I enjoy the flowers in my photos too but sometimes I grow a little weary of all the bright colors so…<\/p>\n

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I appreciate getting a shot like this once in a awhile. I like the little splash of greenish iridescence at the top of her head.<\/p>\n

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This hummer worked this flower over for a long time so I figured she was getting a lot of nectar from it.<\/p>\n

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But it wasn’t easy to get to. Sometimes almost half of her, including her long bill, disappeared inside the flower.<\/p>\n

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But the proof is in the pudding. Several times when she backed out there were drops of nectar at or near the end of her bill. Which makes one wonder, how much nectar do they actually consume? And how do they deal with all the urine it would produce?<\/p>\n

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This hummer was feeding on my canna lilies rather than my trumpet vine. When she backed out she realized that her tanks were full so she…<\/p>\n

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dumped a load before going back for more.<\/p>\n

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Then yesterday morning I captured another hummer peeing. These droplets look brown but that’s only because of colors reflected from the setting. They’re actually perfectly clear.<\/p>\n