Hummingbird Iridescence

So far the BirdCam hasn't taken a picture of a Hooded Oriole yet this year, but there are plenty of pictures of hummingbirds.  

Anna's Hummingbird

I like how it captures them flying in and hovering.   

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

The picture above illustrates the iridescence of the feathers on this birds head.  Light bounces off the feathers, resulting in shimmering hues that shift as the bird turns it's head.

The Oriole Feeder And Camera Are Ready!

     This is the time of year when the Hooded Orioles will start arriving, as they migrate from Mexico.  I set a camera in front of the Oriole feeder to take a picture of the first arrival.  So far I only have pictures of Anna's Hummingbirds.

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

Male Orioles

 So far this spring, I have only seen male Hooded Orioles at the Oriole Feeders.  And of course hummingbirds!

Hooded Oriole

Hooded Oriole

Hooded Oriole

Hooded Oriole

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

New Hummingbird Feeder!

 The Hummingbirds are enjoying a new feeder that I received as a gift.  It's very popular among the hummers as they can easily sit and drink the "nectar".

Rufous Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

Iridescent Anna's Hummingbird

Below is the same Anna's Hummingbird in four pictures.  I think it is fascinating how the iridescent feathers light.  This explanation is from Cornell Lab of Ornithology;
The iridescent colors of the gorget (throat feathers)  are the result of the refraction of incident light caused by the microscopic structure of the feathers. The refraction works like a prism, splitting the light into rich, component colors. At certain angles little or no light is reflected back to the viewer and the gorget can appear black. As the viewing angle changes, the refracted light becomes visible in a glowing, shimmering iridescent display.

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

Sitting on the Balcony

The other evening I was sitting on the balcony and this is what I saw.

Anna's Hummingbird

House Finch

House Finch

Begonia King Cobra

Hibiscus

Oak Titmouse 

Anna's Hummingbird

Western Scrub-Jay

Western Scrub-Jay

New Bird Feeder

I have a new bird feeder and with anything new, the birds are slow to start eating from it.  What's really interesting there are several birds that are eating at the feeder but not at the same time and they all eat from the same perch.  Here are a couple of White-crowned Sparrows.

White-crowned Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

 A few house finches are starting to come to the new feeder.  It's filled with a mixture to premium finch seed and safflower seeds.

House Finch

 

It was a rainy day and you can see the rain drops on the new feeder.  Here are some other birds that  I photographed the same day.

California Towhee

Anna's Hummingbird

Black-chinned Hummingbird

The lessor Goldfinches are camouflaged by the leaves in the trees.

 Lesser Goldfinch

 Lesser Goldfinch

Hummer coming in for a landing!

I like this picture of a hummingbird coming in for a landing on the oriole feeder.

Anna's Hummingbird



New Video Camera - Sony Bloggie

I bought a new Sony Bloggie HD video camera.  It's a small video camera that fits in a shirt pocket.


Bloggie Video Camera

 I mounted the camera on a tripod and positioned it in front of an Oriole feeder.

I pressed the record button and walked away.  Here is one of the first videos that I shot with this camera.  A male Oriole comes to the feeder and then a juvenile Oriole shows up.  Keep an eye on the pepper trees in the background as another male comes flying up to the feeder.  Then at the 39 sec point a hummingbird does a fly.

The quality is really diminished after uploading the video to blogger.  This isn't a good representation of the cameras resolution.  I

Hummer in the Sun

I thought this was a nice video of a hummer buzzing back and forth to the feeder.  The angle of the sun shows off it wings.

Two Hummers at the Feeder

This is a short ten second video of two hummingbirds at the Oriole feeder. One just sits on the feeder while the other one buzzes around.  The sound of the neighbors chain saw adds to the show!

Photographing an Oak Titmouse

There is a small flock or "banditry" of titmice in the garden.  I noticed that they would pick the safflower seeds out of the wild bird mix and fly away.  All of the larger birds and especially the crows were devouring the wild bird seed in the platform feeder, so I decided to put safflower seeds into a small two port feeder.  The titmice love it.  I watch from the kitchen window as they fly up to the feeder, take out one safflower seed and fly away.  They don't sit at the feeder and eat like Lesser Goldfinches or House Finches.  I went outside with my digital SLR camera to take some pictures of the titmice.  It was really hard as they don't sit still for a second.  Just as I was getting them in focus, they would jump to another branch.  The auto focus had a hard time focusing too as the birds were among the branches of the trees.  I switched back and forth between manual and auto focus.  Eventually I was able to get a few pictures.

Oak Titmouse at the safflower seed feeder

Oak Titmouse

Oak Titmouse looking for insects to eat in the pine tree

Oak Titmouse, This bird was a little jumpy and it lost the seed (it's in the air) trying to get away to quick.

Some of the other birds seemed to be watching me as I photographed the titmice.

Mourning Dove

House Finch

Anna's Hummingbird in the honeysuckle