After working into position, the hummingbird provided about a quarter-minute to photograph it before zooming off. The close photo images were sharp enough to crop into head and shoulder portraits of the young male Ruby-throated Hummingbird. It’s especially rewarding when a bird continues its activities while you photograph, and it indicates the bird is not troubled by your approach or presence.

Always keep in mind that photographing birds at your feeders and water feature can be just as fruitful and rewarding as photos taken miles away. As I shared last week in the Editor Afield article, the young male Ruby-throated Hummingbird was still visiting my nectar feeder regularly last Tuesday after overnight temperatures dipped to the low 40s. In response I mixed a new warmer, air temperature batch of sugar-water for the first October hummingbird to grace my yard. As I was going out the door with the nectar feeder, I saw the hummer do a flyby where the feeder is usually hanging, but I knew it would return.

In fact, as I was reaching out to hang the feeder, the hummingbird buzzed in, facing me, hovering, and I greeted it with a “hey buddy,” and waited a moment to see if it would land on the feeder with me in such close proximity. It didn’t, zipping away, and I retreated into the house – to grab my camera, because I was sure the hummingbird would quickly return. As I was finding a good position to photograph from, the hummingbird returned and I took a couple quick photos to get an initial image. As I continued to move ever so slowly and carefully to get in a better position as the hummingbird fed I took a couple more photos, and stretched my legs forward to get a better background of more uniformly colored sumac leaves.

At that point, appreciating the patience and trust of the young hummingbird, I knew I was in the right position, and took a number of photos as the little guy dipped its bill into the feeder, as it perched broadside to me, and when it turned in my direction as the seconds ticked. After observing the hummingbird for the past 26 hours, I knew my time was limited for a single feeder visit, and ‘poof’ – it was gone with a quick buzz of sound. I also knew the hummingbird wouldn’t return for another 40 minutes or more, so although I have a lot of photo patience with birds, I needed to get back to work – and I quickly realized I managed to get even better photos than I was hoping for!

Things happened fast, the above photo session only lasted a few seconds, especially during the moments when I was in the best position to photograph. At the same time, it all could have gone wrong if the hummingbird over-reacted to my approach, or simply shortened its feeding visit. You never know, and I always keep the birds in mind when I’m approaching them, especially while they are feeding or hunting for food. But when the hummingbird flew in to face me as I was replacing the feeder, I realized it was pretty willing to have me in a close circle of its position. It effectively showed its limits, and I didn’t get anywhere near that close when photographing.

As for my camera settings, I used an f-6 aperture to keep a narrow area in focus and blur the background to emphasize the hummingbird. The shutter speed varied from 1/800 to 1/500, which provided sharp images and true colors of the plumage. The timing of this brief interaction was quite lucky, with some sunlight present, seemingly slightly filtered. The sunlight also provided green color in the sumac leaves that were blurred in the background; this provided a green background rather than a black background, which would have been the case if the sun wasn’t just right.

Wednesday morning as I prepared for my Northwoods journey, I appreciated witnessing a feeding visit by the young male Ruby-throat outside my bay windows. I knew it might be my last look at the little guy, although he might also appear at my feeding station after my return (late Thursday night), but Friday there was no sign of him. It appeared the young male continued his migration south, either Wednesday night or Thursday night. But I was especially thankful he extended the hummingbird season in my yard to October 2nd (maybe October 3rd). Gracias Amigo, enjoy your winter in Mexico.

But wait, near sunset at 6:45pm Saturday, I looked up from writing and the little male suddenly reappeared! He returned again at 7:10 and 7:14, and thereafter it was pretty dark. That made it a week since the young male first appeared at my nectar feeder, spanning the last days of September and the first days of October. In fact, it’s been 10 days now, with the young Ruby-throat visiting daily up to when we published this issue late Tuesday. Hopefully he will return today (Wednesday), ’cuz there is nothing sadder than an unused nectar feeder, ha-ha. The weather is excellent this week, my feeder is filled with fresh nectar, and I enjoy each hummingbird visit I witness.

Article and Photos by Paul Konrad

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