I missed the Winter Hummer Tour last weekend. One of the homes featured a Buff-bellied Hummingbird, which is one of the birds I have yet to get a good video of. Tried last year but had little luck. This bird was rumored to be cooperative, and I'll have to agree! Took me about an hour to get reasonably close, but I'm pleased with the results. Many thanks to the Hansens for letting me hang out in their yard today!
The Buffy obviously has some favorite perches, so I tried to blend in and ease close. This video was the end result of about an hour and a half of effort and is from the last set I was able to get. He seemed to have relaxed and allowed me to get within about six feet. I love this shot where you can see the bright green flash of his gorget.
Flash o'green
The bird obviously had a Guardian Squirrel -- this little booger called the alarm for the whole hour I was out there! What's cool is that you can hear the Buffy talking too -- he makes a click, click, click and a squeak. And then of course he'll cuss when he's defending the feeder -- although he didn't have much competition today. The Hansens have a Calliope visitor too and he snuck in a couple of times for a sip -- the size difference between the birds was pretty amazing!
Buffy Talk
At one point he got aggravated with me I think and ducked down into some low cover to hide. I was persistent though. I didn't think these shots would come out as well as they did since I had to shoot through the twigs and sometimes that fools the auto-focus eye of the camera. But the colors were especially nice at this angle.
Buffy in a tangle
And here's another action shot...just 'cause
Action shot
What fun!
