Our Mexican Bird of Paradise bush is a great attraction for hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. Anna’s hummingbirds are very common in our yard, and frequent visitors to our hummingbird feeders. However, I thought it would be fun to capture an image of one in its natural habitat. I also wanted to experiment with fast exposure times so the wings wouldn’t be blurred.
I noticed that the male birds with the colorful gorgets defend our feeders, and don’t bother with the bird of paradise plant, or other hummingbird attracting flowers. I still didn’t get exactly the photos I was after, so I’ll try again in the future. I didn’t change the exposure mode to shutter speed priority until about halfway through, and I think I need a still faster shutter speed. The bird-of-paradise is out of season now and the flowers are gone until the spring.
I also got some shots of a Monarch butterfly on the same bush. I didn’t get a good one with the wings spread wide open.
Here are the photographs (click a thumbnail to see the larger picture; use the arrows to move between pictures; click the picture to get back to the thumbnails):
