The birds that gather in the park in front of my house. To be precise, there’s a row of Bottlebrush trees along the houses next to the park, and hummingbirds and others are always busily flying around there. With the morning sun shining in, it’s an ideal spot for photography, though I have to be a bit careful since it often means pointing the lens toward someone’s house.
There are usually three or four Anna’s Hummingbirds around. The bottlebrush flowers look full of nectar and bloom for a long time, from spring through fall.A female Anna’s Hummingbird. At first I thought there was mud on her bill, but it looked more like a small growth. The tip is also slightly bent, so perhaps she has some sort of condition.Many other birds besides hummingbirds gather here as well. Yellow-rumped Warbler.A male Anna’s Hummingbird.A Black Phoebe lit by the morning sun. Its face was so dark that even lifting the shadows in post-processing didn’t reveal much detail.Even though they zip around this close, it’s hard to get a shot where the colors of the face show clearly. Today’s best shot.I also made a GIF animation of its hovering. It’s even relieving itself midair. It’s said that a hummingbird’s wings can beat up to 80 times per second. The GIF looks like it was shot with a high-speed camera, but since my camera’s burst rate is 20 frames per second, only every few wingbeats are actually captured.
