What a beautiful day today! Pure sunshine, 80 degrees, dry and gorgeous. We stayed close to home to relax and catch up on some work. But I took an opportunity to catch our hummingbird friends in flight, over by the Camp Host’s hummingbird feeder. After just five minutes of waiting, this lovely couple showed up.
These are “Anna’s Hummingbirds,” which I suspect are the same as the “Costa’s Hummingbird” but I haven’t checked yet.
Sorry the photo is so grainy. I had to crank the camera up to 1600 ISO (in full sun!) to even catch this much. This was shot at 1/640th of a second, f13. Those little birds are fast! I’ll post more photos on the Flickr album later tomorrow.
January 7th, 2006 at 9:42 am
Hi Rich,
Great shot!
I just looked in my National Audubon Society – Sibley Guide to Birds book and it shows that Anna’s Hummingbirds are different than Costa’s Hummingbirds. The Anna’s is a little bit bigger at 4″ where the Costa’s is 3.5″. Also the adult male Anna’s have a red crown and throat where the Costa’s has a purple crown and throat.
January 7th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
Aha! Then I would say these are Anna’s. I saw a Costa’s Hummingbird earlier on the trailer (I think) and it had a dramatic purple crown. Thanks Michelle! Check the Flickr album for photos of what I think is a female Anna’s.