Visitors 118
Modified 3-Mar-23
Created 3-Mar-23
5 photos
A colorful male Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna) sits at the crown of a bare oak, showing off. He looks back and forth; tests the air with his tongue; blinks. He takes off, then returns to the same spot, time and again. His colors are dazzling, shimmering, ever-shifting.
I pause to watch. The lighting is perfect, the bird facing me. What a show!
I doubt the hummingbird is not doing all this for me and my camera. Hummingbirds do catch and eat insects, returning to the same perch after each foray. But this feels like more than utilitarian hunting. What could explain such a display? Sex!!
I imagine there must have been a female in the area -- perhaps watching with interest, from just over my shoulder? Or the showoff was hoping for one. Or, possibly, trying to intimidate a potential male rival.
Do you have any other ideas?
In any case, I feel lucky to have watched this -- with a camera at the ready. The photos let me see much more than I noticed at the time --magnified and frozen in time.
Here are five photos, different poses, different sheen from the magical iridescence of his cape. This series would make a nice pentaptych -- similar to a diptych or triptych, here a polyptych with five panels. If you can, look at them all together, arranged horizontally.
If you want more photos of this encounter, there is a much larger collection nearby.
Enjoy!
