{"id":171950,"date":"2026-08-10T06:32:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=171950"},"modified":"2026-08-10T10:52:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T16:52:18","slug":"i-had-two-hummingbird-firsts-yesterday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/10\/i-had-two-hummingbird-firsts-yesterday\/","title":{"rendered":"I Had Two Hummingbird “Firsts” Yesterday"},"content":{"rendered":"

And both were provided by the same hummingbird.<\/p>\n

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1\/1250, f\/5.6, ISO 2000, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the first Rufous Hummingbird I’ve seen in my yard for over two years. I used to get lots of them in my yard when they were migrating but for some reason, they just stopped showing up. Until early yesterday morning when this little lady made a prolonged appearance in my canna lily patch (at one point I took more than 300 photos of her in just over 30 seconds).<\/p>\n

Then she did something that provided the second first of the morning.<\/p>\n

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1\/500, f\/6.3, ISO 2000, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

She started feeding, or attempting to feed, on an eggplant flower that was right behind my canna lilies. I’ve never seen a hummer try to feed on an eggplant flower before, for good reason. Eggplant flowers don’t produce or contain any nectar – none at all.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/640, f\/6.3, ISO 2000, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

She kept her bill inside the flower for long enough to make me think she was getting some kind of nourishment in there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is my view of the canna lilly patch from where I always sit while I’m trying to photograph hummers. The eggplant plant is between and behind the two canna clumps. I’ve circled the precise flower she was feeding on in white to make it easier to spot (the photo isn’t particularly sharp).<\/p>\n

If you look closely you’ll see a ripe eggplant fruit at the bottom of the plant near the ground. Fried breaded eggplant is included in my planned dinner menu for tonight, to go with barbecued tri-tip.<\/p>\n

I have no idea why she was trying to feed at an eggplant flower. Maybe she was feeding on ants inside the flower – after all, the outside of the flower was covered with them. Or perhaps she was just exploring, as hummers tend to do.<\/p>\n

Either way I was delighted to get the photos and document the behavior, despite the low light, slow shutter speed and blurred wings.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PS – In photos #2 and #3 the “f\/6.3” was a mistake. If I’d been at f\/5.6 I’d have had a little more shutter speed. It probably didn’t make much difference though.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And both were provided by the same hummingbird. (4 photos)<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[334,392,3512],"tags":[2091,7946,7947,7948,2173],"class_list":["post-171950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-feeding-bird-behaviors","category-rufous-hummingbirds","tag-ants","tag-canna-lilies","tag-do-eggplant-flowers-contain-nectar","tag-hummingird-feeding-at-an-eggplant-flower","tag-rufous-hummingbird"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/rufous-hummingbird-1037-for-facebook-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-IJo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171950"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171986,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171950\/revisions\/171986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}