Humming Birds

[Blu]

We have four or five humming birds that come to the feeder on our back deck, they have gotten pretty used to us and from what I'm told the same breeding pair will always return. This morning I was messing about with my wife's camera and managed to get a couple of snaps of them. They aren't brilliant but not too bad either, they're also a bugger to photograph as they stop still for very long. Also this was early morning and the sun wasn't up, they're colours are better in the sun.

Blu

Capture3.JPG

Capture4.JPG

Capture6.JPG

[Dougan]

The wings are blurred..... :P

seriously now, nice pics....don't think I've seen one perched before...

[Blu]

Dougan, he's perched for a reason, he's defending that feeder from other hummingbirds. There are about four or five other hummingbirds trying to feed, we suspect they are his mate and this years chicks they had between them. He'll let the female feed but the others he chases off, we think it's their way of making their chicks fend for themselves.

Blu

[ovenpaa]

I had never seen a picture of a Humming bird perched either, I suppose everyone wants the iconic blurred wings shot instead.

Nice pictures Blu, any idea what sort of Humming birds they are?

[spud]

It looks like a Rufous to me.

[Blu]

Ovenpaa, spud is correct they are Rufous Hummingbirds. They usually appear here in Northern Michigan around the beginning of May and stay till around the middle of September when they head back down to the warmer Southern States and Mexico. To be honest I wasn't going for any type of wing effect, I just wanted to get a photo of them. They have this amazing little fast chirp when they are communicating.

Blu

[Blu]

spud, did you look it up?

Blu

[Dougan]

Dougan, he's perched for a reason, he's defending that feeder from other hummingbirds

Interesting...(Christel: I miss having the 'geek' emoticon)

I've seen them on feeders like yours' in Honduras - to have that on your 'back deck' is cool!...I get excited when we get woodpeckers on our feeder...

Edit: Spud - secret twitcher? :P

[Blu]

Dougan, yeah it's really cool having them out there and the thing is they aren't shy. We can be sat out there with the dogs and they will come right in and feed or sit on the perch. If you like watching birds you would love it here. We have a seed feeder down in the garden by the flower beds and sitting out on the deck watching all the different birds coming in to feed is amazing as is some of the colours they have on them.

As for woodpeckers, well we have quite a few different varieties of them here both migratory and all year round ones, this year we had a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers nest on our property that would come down to feed at the feeder. They are large woodpeckers about the size of a crow with some really striking colours. For next year I am thinking about setting up my trail cam down by the feeder and setting it to take a photo every 5 - 10 seconds, might be interesting to see the results. The link below will let you see some of the types of woodpeckers we have here in Michigan.

http://www.michiganaudubon.org/educatio ... ckers.html

Blu

[Dougan]

Just had a look at the different species link - the pilated is very striking...a head like a pterodactyl.

I've got relatives in Holland...and the prospect of a visit has just gone up a bit...