Allens Hummingbirds Magnets

It's difficult sometimes to determine the gender of Allen's Hummingbirds that are not adult males. Adult males have the bright red gorget and head that is unmistakable, even in flight. But one has to look closely at the gorget of the young to determine their gender. According to the Peterson's Field Guide of Hummingbirds of North America, by Sherri L. Williamson, the young male is similar to the female but the "gorget is usually more heavily marked, often with large mirrorlike metallic feathers in patches throughout the gorget area or concentrated in lower center". Hence, the red patch, just in view at the bottom of his throat, marks this as a young man.

Hummingbirds are very territorial. I am frequently dive-bombed in the morning as I set up a camera for the day's work. This is a composite of four images of a female Allen's Hummingbird guarding her Zinnia. They were all taken on a calm and somewhat overcast October morning, within 50 minutes of each other, so the background and Zinnia were easily aligned. All the images were taken with a Pentax K-50 with a 1980's vintage, manual focus 70-210mm macro zoom, set to 150mm, f11, 1/1600s and ISO 3200 and 6400. This image has been submitted to the Los Angeles Center For Digital Art for their 2016 International Juried Digital Art and Photography Competition.

I occasionally get shots of hummingbirds looking up like this. They are usually looking around to see what other hummingbird is going to dive-bomb them next. Two things I find interesting in this shot are 1) the fact I was able to stop the wings in mid stroke. Usually they are blurred at this point in their arc, since the wings are flapping at around 50-80 strokes per second. The shutter speed for this shot was 1/1600 second. Even at that speed, I seldom stop the wings at mid stroke. The other thing I find interesting is the orange color of this female Allen's Hummingbird's gorget closely matches the color of the snapdragons in the background behind her. The fly resting on the Zinnia is kind of funny too. :-)

This Allen's Hummingbird first showed up in January of 2019, and now, in July, he's still patrolling the garden. I don't normally name the hummingbirds that visit us, but this guy has been around so long, I've decided to name him Al.

I normally try to shoot hummingbirds in lighting where the sun is over MY shoulder, not the hummingbird's. I try to shoot when the sun is low, so the gorget is lit. But sometimes, when the birds are stubborn, one has to shoot where the birds are. ;-) In this case, it worked. This is the female Allen's Hummingbird that has ruled our yard for most of 2015. She was frequenting this area of the yard in the early morning, but I was able to get a bit of dazzle from her gorget, and the sun back lit her wings and tail nicely. This is the second of two images accepted by Saga Fine Art, in Monrovia, California, for their 'Holiday Small Works' show in December, 2015.

I'll frequently get images of hummingbirds squawking at another bird in the garden, but I've never seen one with its mouth this wide open. At first glance, this female Allen's Hummingbird looks to be laughing out loud. This will put a smile on anyone's face.

So many flowers, so little time. With pollen on her head and beak, a female Allen's Hummingbird approaches a bright yellow nasturtium flower. In my yard, the hummingbirds prefer the feeders to the flowers, it seems. It took several days of shooting to get this shot. Shot with a Pentax K-3 and SMC-A 35-105mm, f14, 1/640s, ISO 3200.

The Black-chinned Hummingbird is a rare sight in my backyard. Most of my hummingbird shooting, and most of the hummingbird shots you see here, are from my backyard garden. In the ten plus years I've been shooting in the yard, I've only had two instances where I've caught Black-chinned Hummingbirds. Both those instances were in the springtime, but in different years, and on one day only in each year. They show up for a moment, then move on. That may be due to the territorial Allen's Hummingbirds in the garden, chasing out most other hummingbirds, for what seems like all year. This shot, as the bird approaches a Mexican Bird Of Paradise flower, was taken in Patagonia, Arizona. What I find fascinating about Black-chinned Hummingbirds...