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<\/p>\nThis was another instance where I didn’t know what I’d photographed until I reviewed my images at home. That happens often with hummingbirds because they’re so incredibly fast.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, 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 Two days ago we found this male Broad-tailed Hummingbird in the mountains as he was guarding his territory on a prominent high perch. I wasn’t terribly excited about photographing him because he mostly just sat there with his back to me as he faced the far side of the valley from his elevated perch. My goal was to get him taking off or landing so I kept my itchy trigger finger on the shutter button and hoped for a miracle (which was unlikely with him facing away from me).<\/p>\n Suddenly we heard the distinctive sound of another hummer nearby and the relatively relaxed demeanor of this one instantly changed. He flared his tail and looked behind him and to his left where the other bird was presumably approaching (I never did see the intruder, we only heard it). I believe the intruder was about to pass between me and this bird from my left to my right.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, 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 In one incredibly fast and fluid motion he whirled on his perch and lifted his wings to take off in pursuit of the intruder that was passing from left to right. But the second bird was behind him so he had to take off semi-backwards and that required…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, 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 some amazing wing gymnastics that only hummingbirds are fully capable off. Just look at that wing rotation!<\/p>\n Because of their unique physiology and anatomy hummingbirds can actually pivot (rotate) their wings 180\u00b0 which allows them to fly more like insects than like other birds. In this case he used this ability to take off nearly backwards in pursuit of the intruder. In my next shot in the burst he was already completely out of frame.<\/p>\n I’ve never before been able to capture this much rotation in hummingbird wings so I was pretty happy to get the shot. Notice that even with a shutter speed of 1\/4000 there’s still motion blur in the wings.<\/p>\n Some viewers may be put off by the intensely bright green background color but it can be explained by the following photo.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender<\/em><\/p>\n A few minutes before I photographed the hummer I encountered this cowboy taking a smoke break on the far side of the valley with his horse and dog by his side. I thought it was an interesting pastoral scene so I took a few shots with my long lens. This year it’s hard to believe I live in the arid west because our spring and early summer have been so wet and cool that everything is much greener than usual. This grass-green color is what we see in the background of the hummer shots.<\/p>\n This dude may actually be a sheepherder rather than a cowboy but I went with the latter because of all the cows on the mountainside right now.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: If you have the interest more about the unique flying abilities of hummingbirds can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This was another instance where I didn’t know what I’d photographed until I reviewed my images at home. That happens often with hummingbirds because they’re so incredibly fast.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/broad-tailed-hummingbird-7606-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"broad-tailed-hummingbird-7606-ron-dudley\\"")
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