{"id":73303,"date":"2019-07-09T06:16:58","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T12:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=73303"},"modified":"2019-07-09T06:52:10","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T12:52:10","slug":"hummingbird-takeoff-series-illustrating-the-fickleness-of-gorget-colors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2019\/07\/09\/hummingbird-takeoff-series-illustrating-the-fickleness-of-gorget-colors\/","title":{"rendered":"Hummingbird Takeoff Series Illustrating The Fickleness of Gorget Colors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plus some interesting information on the presumed functions of the gorget.<\/p>\n

In several recent posts I’ve mentioned the frustrations of capturing the flashing gorget colors of male hummingbirds. When Broad-tailed Hummingbirds are facing me directly the gorget colors light up like a Christmas tree. But with the bird facing me directly like that its bill all but disappears and I can barely see the eyes which typically have no catch lights. Those kinds of shots are rarely appealing.<\/p>\n

But when a male hummer turns his head a little so we can see both the bill and the eye better most or all of the gorget colors instantly disappear. That frustrating phenomenon of physics was illustrated for me recently in a series of three shots as a Broad-tailed Hummingbird took off from his diagonal perch in the mountains.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/5000, f\/5.6\/ 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

While he was perched and looking to his left and right for approaching intruders the gorget always showed very little color or none at all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/5000, f\/5.6\/ 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

But as he was leaving the perch during takeoff he faced me directly for a nanosecond and that gorgeous color appeared as quickly as a flashing strobe light. But we see more of the shadow of the bill than we do of the bill itself and what little we can see of his eyes looks like little more than photon-sucking black pits. Not good.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/5000, f\/5.6\/ 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

And then those traits did another flip-flop as the hummer was leaving the perch – suddenly we can see the bill and the eye clearly but the gorget color has mostly disappeared. In fact more often than not the gorget has even less color than this, it just looks black.<\/p>\n

I realize that all of this is old hat to most birders and hummingbird lovers but I thought it was interesting to see it illustrated in a series of photos taken only a tenth of a second apart.<\/p>\n

If you’ve ever wondered about the function(s) of the hummingbird gorget you might find this info from Wikipedia interesting.<\/p>\n