The Art of Hummingbird Gardening: How to Make Your Backyard into a Beautiful Home for Hummingbirds by Mathew Tekulsky

Author:Mathew Tekulsky
Format: epub
Publisher: Perseus Books, LLC
Published: 2015-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Anna’s Hummingbird hovering above feeder

Allen’s Hummingbird hovering

Black-chinned Hummingbird flying off feeder

Allen’s Hummingbird at oriole feeder with Anna’s Hummingbird hovering above him

One particularly challenging photograph shows the female Black-chinned Hummingbird flying off of the hummingbird feeder (see page 90 top). In order to capture this bird in flight, I used the Canon 100-400mm lens set at 135mm, with the ISO at 6400, the shutter speed at 1/8000 second, and the f-stop at f/10. Sometimes, you have to push your camera to the limits to get the image you want.

On another occasion, I managed to capture the Allen’s Hummingbird perched on the oriole feeder and turning his head to face an Anna’s Hummingbird that was hovering just above him (see page 90 bottom). This image really captures the beauty and intrigue of hummingbird gardening, as you can almost tell what each hummingbird is thinking as this interaction occurs. By the way, the Allen’s Hummingbird held his ground and the Anna’s Hummingbird flew off to another part of my garden.

While I have taken many photographs of the Allen’s Hummingbird with the yellow flowers of the bush daisy in the background, I decided to position the camera so that a splash of red color from the adjacent fuchsia flowers would add to the background and complement the orange-red gorget of this hummingbird (see page 82). This type of “painting” with natural ingredients is one of the great challenges of hummingbird photography, and indeed, of bird photography in general.

As far as technique is concerned, the key word, as it is with most photographic endeavors, is patience, patience, and even more patience. Sometimes, you may have to stand (or sit) in the same spot for two or three hours (or even the better part of a day) in order to be in the right place at the right time and under the best lighting conditions. By remaining in the same spot for a long period of time, the hummingbirds will become accustomed to your presence and they will be more likely to fly over to you.

If you position yourself in front of a plant, or even a specific flower head, and remain as motionless as possible for as long as you possibly can, sooner or later, a hummingbird should fly into your field of view. One thing that does not work very well is to move toward a hummingbird. Unless it is facing away from you or is preoccupied with feeding, you are almost certainly going to scare it away. But if you give the hummingbirds enough time to get used to you, the right opportunities should present themselves sooner or later. Then, you must be prepared to take advantage of these moments. Otherwise, all of that waiting will be for naught.

Despite the difficulties, the exhilaration I have felt when snapping the shutter and knowing that I’ve captured the image to the best of my ability is worth all of the waiting. I am also acutely aware by now, after taking thousands of photographs of hummingbirds,

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