![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/broad-tailed-hummingbird-3825-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"broad-tailed-hummingbird-3825-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nPhotographing hummingbirds during the landing process is more difficult than one might think so of course I missed the shots of the most incredible landing I’ve ever seen, from any bird of any species.<\/p>\n
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1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Yesterday morning in the Wasatch Mountains I tried to photograph this male Broad-tailed Hummingbird many times as it was landing with very limited success but this is one of those successes. Here the bird is just touching down as evidenced by his open wings (we see only the tip of his left wing above his head) and his left foot which is still slightly above the perch. I was lucky to get this much of his gorgeous gorget lit up with that spectacular color and still have a catch light in his eye – the only times I could get his entire gorget to flash its colors the bird was looking straight at me which meant his eyes were almost completely hidden.<\/p>\n By watching the bird land and analyzing my photos of the process I realized that hummingbirds don’t even look at the perch as they’re landing (very different from a raptor for example). It’s almost like they have some internal computer program that calculates and remembers the location of the perch in three dimensions from earlier on in their approach and guides their stubby legs and feet to a perfect landing. And they don’t extend their feet toward the perch as they’re landing either (again, very different from a raptor) – their legs aren’t long enough to extend them even if they wanted to. And the landing process is so incredibly fast that it’s very, very difficult to photograph well.<\/p>\n Ok, I’m about to tell you something that you may not believe but it’s true – both Mia and I watched it happen. One time and one time only the bird actually landed on this serviceberry stem backwards<\/em>! As I remember it he approached the stem, flew slightly past it on one side, and then backed into it and made a textbook landing with his back to it, without any missteps or clumsiness at all. He stuck that backwards landing perfectly! Like always it was incredibly fast and for both Mia and me it was a jaw-dropper to watch.<\/p>\n In the last few days I’ve taken several thousand photos of this male on or near the serviceberry stem (it’s his favorite perch) but I’ve had a lot on my plate lately and haven’t even been able to review all of them, much less finish my image culling.<\/p>\n But I’m sure I’ll post more of them sometime in the near future.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photographing hummingbirds during the landing process is more difficult than one might think so of course I missed the shots of the most incredible landing I’ve ever seen, from any bird of any species.<\/p>\n