Hummingbirds!!

Posted on November 29, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Crowned Woodnymph

I have barely managed to process four days’ worth of photographs from Costa Rica, and have three more to go. And this was not a birding trip! But I find myself with a surfeit of hummingbird photos, so maybe it’s time to look at a few before I discover any more treasures.

Volcano Hummingbird

Perhaps the most unusual sighting was of the Volcano Hummingbird. Although conditions were not perfect for photographing this bird, it was cooperative and loyal to its perch on top of a short tree hugging a crater of the Irazu volcano.

White-Necked Jacobin

Even if White-Necked Jacobins were not widespread in Central and South America, they would be easily recognizable for their distinctive colors.

Green Hermit

In the middle of our work week we took a day off from banding and one feature of that day was visiting Rancho Naturalista for lunch and observing their hummingbirds at the feeders, like the Green Hermit above and the Green-Breasted Mango below.

Green-Breasted Mango

Rufous-Tailed Hummingbirds were numerous everywhere, and we were releasing them daily from the nets in the chayote fields. They appeared exotic again feeding in the vervain.

Rufous-Tailed Hummingbird

Black-Crested Coquettes are distinctive-looking little birds. Going through the pictures I wondered how I could have missed the fancy striping on their bellies, but I guess I was paying more attention to the black crest and the white posterior band that I guess makes them coquettish.

Black-Crested Coquette

Crowned Woodnymphs used to be called Violet-Crowned Woodnymphs. I kind of like the old name better but they’re spectacular-looking little birds, whatever they’re called.

Crowned Woodnymph

Of course we saw Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds outside of the nets too.

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

It’s been nice to have a four-day weekend to spend at home observing my new live-in birds. I hope to be back soon with reports from the home front as well as more from Costa Rica.

Crowned Woodnymph

A Change of Scenery

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Lisa Rest

Versicolored Emerald

Now that I find myself getting ready for an international trip in a couple weeks (as it gets down to the wire, it prefaces just about every waking thought), I remember never completely finishing going through the Brazil pictures from last year, at least to the point where I could identify every bird often hidden in them. I won’t be going to South America this time, so I won’t see any of these birds, but it feels like a good time to revisit a few images for a virtual change of scenery. Also, we are presently experiencing two days of constant rain in Chicago, so I have given the cameras a rest.

Here is a little video of hummingbirds from last year’s trip. The location is Folha Seca, so popular with the hummers they way outnumbered the tour participants.

On another rainy day, only this time in Brazil last year, the video below was taken at the porch feeders outside the dining room at the hotel where we stayed in Itatiaia National Park outside of Rio de Janeiro. The bird is a very wet Saffron Toucanet eating fruit and trying to avoid buzzing insects.

The last photo is of a Violet-Capped Woodnymph, taken at Folha Seca. One interesting observation: when I was going through the videos last night on my computer, even though there are hardly any bird sounds that my indoor birds could have recognized, they became immediately attentive and curious, which only indicates to me they hear so much more than we ever will.

Violet-Capped Woodnymph

First Hummer in the Yard

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Lisa Rest

RT Hummer IMG_2381_1

I’ve had my hummingbird feeders up for a couple weeks, but I have not seen any hummers in the yard until last night some time after I got home from work. And to think if I hadn’t been dawdling before I went swimming, I might have missed her!

So it was nice to grab a long look at a very hungry female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird through the kitchen window, where one feeder is strategically placed on the sumac. I have come to consider the sumac a weed, but it’s still pretty when it leafs out and flowers later in the year and the birds like it, so it stays.

RT Hummer IMG_2390_1

Goldbird Variations

Why Birds Sing in Key with Music, or how I finally put perfect pitch to use.

Tag Archives: hummingbird feeders

Hummingbirds!!

A Change of Scenery

First Hummer in the Yard