This little guy is an Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna), displaying his beautiful gorget feathers. I’ve been trying for a long time to photograph the hummingbirds around my house, and now that I have a zoom lens with image stabilization, it’s much less frustrating. Fortunately for me, they are incredibly fearless birds, and this one let me approach very closely.
I read somewhere that you should try to photograph hummingbirds with the sun at your back, since that will allow for the reflection of light from the gorget feathers back into the eye of the viewer. Viewed from the wrong angle, the feathers look drab and brown– but viewed with the sun at your back, they flash magenta and ruby colors.
If you look closely, you can see that this bird’s gorget feathers are so bright that they are reflecting magenta light onto the bottom of its beak. Amazing!
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