That's a Beautiful shot! Every single feather, the detail, perfect!

What type of camera does your husband have?

After being on this Hummer forum and seeing the beautiful photos of hummers and flowers, I have serious Close-Up Envy!

My little camera is a Kodak EasyShare CX7430.
I'd sure like to move up a notch to get the close-ups some of you get.
(Have to stay with Kodak because family member gets a great discount)

Here's some photos I've taken. I don't know how to separate the albums so the Hummer photos are mixed in with misc. other photos.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Backyard Feathered Friends

Justa...fabulous shot! I'm horrible at identifing females so I'll leave that for the experts. Personally, I prefer the males just because it's so easy to tell who's who! at least in my yard...blue for black chin's and red for rubys...it doesn't take a genius! :-)

amity...great pic of the ruby!

root, it's a female black-chinned...little white dot behind the eye

you'll see these on the TX forum I'm sure, but you asked!

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amity
I love the beautiful hummers you get just wonderful.
My husband has a Canon PowerShot S3IS 6MP Digital Camera. It works for me:)

tes
I am new to identifing any kind of birds and not good at it either as you can see. But I will keep trying

mnktx
I am new to this forum and really dont know my way around it. Is there a tx forum other then the Texas Gardening? I thought this forum was for hummers. Is there one for tx? I love the pictures. What kind of camera do you have?

Alas, this post comes too early for us northerners. I'm hoping to get some pictures this year of the birds feeding from my hand made feeders, but I think I'm still weeks away from the arrival of my first birds. They're predicting snow tonight!

I have a pretty decent camera, and did take some pictures last year, but my camera is not digital so I have to go to some trouble to get them scanned and posted. I also don't have a telephoto. The feeders are close to our window, so if I stay very still, and put the camera right against the window glass, I can get decent shots. The problem is that from inside the house, everything is backlit and it's so hard to get a decent exposure. It would be so much better if I had the right sort of flash, or had a telephoto and could sit outside and photograph them from the best angle.

I can't wait to contribute some photos, but for now I guess I'll just have to enjoy the sumptuous offerings of others!

By the way, I also think the female hummer that justayoungroot posted is a Black-chinned. The first thing I noticed was that the bill seems longer than for a Ruby-throat. Also, it looks like the wing feathers have blunted tips, which is typical for a female Black-chinned. The field guides say that the wing feathers of a female Ruby-throat are more pointy than they are in the Black-chinned. I'm not sure the white spot behind the eye is entirely conclusive. I think female Ruby-throats can also have that mark.

Root...just the TX Gardening. I was talking about the looong hummer thread going on over there. Most of my shooting is with an Olympus 8080 wide angle.

Kristin, you time's coming soon and can't wait to see em!

Last one for me!

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Hi, new here! (Wave!)

I have some pics of my hummers that my husband took, but I'm sure of how to post a picture on this forum?

All the pictures here btw, are great! Justayoungroot, that's a great first shot!. I'm really impressed with the pictures by mnktx, you got the pollen on it's beak! WOW.... Did you use a tripod for that?

Oh just a youngroot, what kind of hummers do you have in your area of texas? I know that ruby throats live in TX, but I don't know what else shows up there. Females all look pretty much the same, so it's darned hard to tell!

This is a good thread and there are some good shots here , but as Kristin said its early for a lot of us more nothern hummer loves. As yesterday I was outside a lot and it was spiting snow all day.

Kristin-- last year I too didnt have a digital camera but it did have the macro feature for closeups and I got some pretty good closeups through my window since I use window feeders .,I would just rest my camera on the window sill and It wouldnt bother them although on one shot he turned and looked dead at me , maybe the flash went, but I stray. I did get a digital camera off ebay [6mp svp] got tired of spending the extra bucks for photo processing and in that way it will pay for itself sense I can take a lot pics of birds flowers and such. I also ended up getting a good battery charger with rechargable batteries. The first thing I learned was how digital camera will quickly drain normal batteries. So some of you may be asking why dont I post some of those pics from last year, well I had major pc problems and endup having to replace my hard drive so lost a lot and had to replace everything. I posted some pics over on the salvia forums under --my seedling-- from this camera.

Ok, here's a picture my husband took of an Anna's male. Let's see how this uploads...

Ah... Hurrah! Worked fine!

So I just have to pull out my rusty html skills. :)

mnktx,

What kind of hummingbird is that? Is that a violet eared? Beautiful shot!

I was looking for info on what to do for the COLD hummers when I came across this forum. Had to join up so I could show you what our feeders looked like today. We're in Brownwood TX and it's been snowing all day and around 30 degrees. I apologize for the pictures not being as clear as they could be, but you should get the idea. The second and third pix are the lines I have strung to raise and lower the feeders.
Duane

Texas Hippie

Nice idea , you have given them good shelter and you certainly have your share of hummers. How many would you say you have once the weather is descent?

HummerSteve,

I really have no idea how many are around here. Last summer I tried to sit on the front porch and watch them most afternoons. As an average, there would be 8-10 most of the time. About 15-20 minutes before sundown, they'd get much thicker. One evening, counting as fast as I could, I came up with about 35. I suspect a lot of these are passing through right now. We're on our 4th gallon of sugar-water since March 22nd! Last year, we averaged about 1 gallon every other day. I guess I need to calculate that out one day. By the way, I believe that most of the current visitors are black-chinned, but I did notice some ruby-throats last year.

Duane

Morning Everyone!

Justayoungroot,

Thank you for the information regarding your husband's camera. I think I'm going to venture out and look at other brands, not just Kodak. The Cannon Powershot is a good place to start.
I am like you, rather new to this forum and new to identifying the little jewels.
For the most part, I've gotten pretty good when it comes to identifying adult males (all because of the photos that the regulars post on this board) but when it comes to the females and the youngins, not so good. *smile*

Mnktx,
WOW, those photos, right down to the pollen---Incredible!!!

Tess wrote: "blue for black chin's and red for rubys...it doesn't take a genius!"
Too Funny! LOL
(Note to self: Avert eyes from reading board while taking a sip of coffee.)

Organic Hummingbird,
Hello, Good morning and Welcome to this fantastic board!
I'm rather new to posting here myself (lurked for quite awhile and learned a lot from the regulars here before I got the nerve to post).
The photo your husband took is spectacular! Looks as though that little jewel is looking right at your husband telling him "I'm posing for you. Look how purdy I am. Quick, take a picture cuz I've got places to go, people to see!"

Texashippie,
Um.... what's the definition of "show-off" ???
LOL Just joking with ya.
Only in my dreams could I see what you actually have!
And your feeding system - the raising and lowering of the feeders, I HAVE to show this pic of yours to my husband when he gets home from work!

Kristin, Steve and all the rest of you without hummers yet:
I know it's hard for you, but I can wait for your pictures while you wait for your hummers-I'm patient. *smile*
When you finally see your first for the year, you'll be excited and I'll be just as happy and excited for you!

Sorry, couldn't resist...

But seriously, my MAIN passions are bird-watching and gardening, with the occasional offroad use of what my Hummer was intended for.

We regularly have Black-chinned, Annas, Costas, Rufous Hummingbirds. Rare are Calliope and Allen's.

I live on 1.5 acres in SoCal (a rarity). It is certified as Monarch Waystation and a NWF backyard habitat. I am currently growing organically around 100 tomato plants for this year, herbs, cut flowers, etc....

Here is a few I took last week.

They sure love this little feeder. I need to get more, .98 at Walmart!

Enjoy

Laura

Oh I just love all of your pictures. I am sitting here with at least 6" of snow, and juncos by the hundreds in my back yard. Thanks for posting all of your hummers, big ones and flying ones. It sure gives me something to look forward too, considering they are saying another storm at the end of the weekend!

Hey Everyone have been out of town for a week and I see a few more pictures..Just love them . You would know it while I was in East Tx it would snow and DH called to tell me about all the hummers we were getting at the feeders. Not the best pictures, he was inside trying to take them thru the glass door.

ORGANIC HUMMINGBIRD1
I don't know what kind I get I have always had feeders but never really looked to see what kind they were.AND I am in need of glasses in a bad way just this morning I seen one and had to ask my daughter what color it was. It was a baby one. Sad...so sad here I am watching them and can't see. hahaha So far I have only got the black-chinned. That I know of. *smile*

I posted this last year and still dont have anything better, so Ill show it off again.
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Wow! These pictures are amazing! I can't imagine having so many hummers at one feeder. How do you manage that?

We have a feeder on our back deck and one on our front porch, but there seems to be only about two hummers coming around. They are like fighter planes, diving into each other as they try to fight over the feeder.

Beverly

Bev,

What you see is normal breeding season behavior. They are defending territory. During migrations they rely on the safety in numbers method and are often seen in very large groups during that time. We're at the end of the migration trail here and usually get no more than 10 at a time once they start arriving and eventually thin out to the same 6 or so throughout the day.