Tag Archives: Hummingbirds

Birds, Photography, Reviews, Views, Wildlife

Views: Favorite Birds Of Wildlife Photographers

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Anna’s Hummingbird
A male Anna’s hummingbird in Newport, Oregon. A 19th-century French naturalist named the species after the French courtier Anna Masséna, Duchess of Rivoli. Gretchen Kay Stuart

Anna’s Hummingbird, Calypte anna

Hummingbird Map
U.S. range of the Anna’s hummingbird Guilbert Gates

Photograph by Gretchen Kay Stuart

“I’ve always been enchanted by hummingbirds,” Stuart says. “Their tiny size and iridescent plumage make them seem as though they are born out of fairy tales.”

Evening Grosbeak
A member of the finch family, this bird, photographed in Ithaca, New York, has a large beak useful for crushing seeds. Early English colonists mistakenly thought it came out only after sunset. Melissa Groo

Evening Grosbeak, Coccothraustes vespertinus

Photograph by Melissa Groo

Evening Grosbeak Map
U.S. range of the evening grosbeak Guilbert Gates

The evening Grosbeak tends to hover north of Groo’s home in Central New York State. So she was delighted when a flock of them recently appeared outside her house. “When they roam further south in winter in search of food, I’ve been blessed with their presence, sometimes over months,” she says. “This past winter and into very early spring, I had a flock of up to 15 visiting my platform bird feeder daily, hoovering up black oil sunflower seeds.”

Northern pygmy-owl
Dinner is served in Portland, Oregon, as this adult northern pygmy-owl returns to the nest cavity clutching a vole. These owls often store food inside their trees or hang it on thorns for later. Gerrit Vyn

Northern Pygmy-Owl, Glaucidium gnoma

Photograph by Gerrit Vyn

Northern pygmy-owl Map
U.S. range of the northern pygmy owl Guilbert Gates

In Western Oregon where Vyn lives, the tooting of the northern pygmy-owl is the sound of spring. “Even when you don’t see them, while hiking through the forest or sitting in a lush patch of sword ferns on the forest floor and looking up into the canopy, just knowing they are somewhere up there, watching, deepens the experience and magic of place,” he says.

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

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Birds, Documentaries, Ecosystems, Nature, Travel, Videos, Wildlife

Nature: The Hummingbird Effect In Costa Rica (PBS)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xzs_CDn4I0

Nature on PBS (April 12, 2023) – Discover how tiny hummingbirds influence their many flowering kingdoms and their ripple effects on macaws, quetzals, monkeys, tapirs and more. Set in the exotic landscapes of Costa Rica.

Costa Rica’s motto is Pura Vida – Pure Life – and this deceptively small country is bursting with some of the most spectacular wildlife and pristine ecosystems in the world. All this diversity thrives, in part, thanks to one surprising little creature: hummingbirds.

Venture across Costa Rica’s wild and rugged landscapes, from volcanic peaks to coastal jungle to misty cloud forests, and discover the nation’s dazzling diversity of hummingbirds. There are more than 50 species of hummingbirds here, and they play an outsize role in maintaining some of the richest and wildest environments on Earth.

The Hummingbird Effect premiered on April 12, 2023.

Birds, Travel, Videos, Views, Wildlife

Costa Rica Views: The Tiny ‘Volcano Hummingbird’

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Nature on PBS (March 27, 2023) – No bigger than a human thumb, the volcano hummingbird exists only in the Talamancas.

The volcano hummingbird (Selasphorus flammula ) is a very small  hummingbird, native to the Talamancan montane forests of Costa Rica and western Panama.

This tiny endemic bird inhabits open brushy areas, paramo, and edges of elfin forest at altitudes from 1850 m to the highest peaks. It is only 7.5 cm long. The male weighs 2.5 g and the female 2.8 g. The black bill is short and straight.

The adult male volcano hummingbird has bronze-green upperparts and rufous-edged black outer tail feathers. The throat is grey-purple in the Talamanca range, red in the Poas-Barva mountains and pink-purple in the Irazú-Turrialba area, the rest of the underparts being white. The female is similar, but her throat is white with dusky spots. Young birds resemble the female but have buff fringes to the upperpart plumage.

The female volcano hummingbird is entirely responsible for nest building and incubation. She lays two white eggs in her tiny plant-down cup nest 1–5 m high in a scrub or on a root below a south or east facing bank. Incubation takes 15–19 days, and fledging another 20–26.

Birds, Books, Photography, Previews, Reviews, Stories

Nature: ‘Hummingbirds, An Illustrated Guide’ (2022)

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Cover art of Hummingbirds: A Celebration of Nature's Jewels, with a photo of flowers and a Black-billed Streamertail

A stunningly illustrated guide to the wonderful world of hummingbirds.

With their dazzling colors, glittering iridescent feathers, fantastic adornments, astonishing powers of flight, and many other unique characteristics, hummingbirds are among the world’s most extraordinary birds – true jewels of nature. This beautifully designed book offers a celebration of all aspects of hummingbirds and their world, presenting the latest scientific information in an accessible style and featuring hundreds of the most spectacular photographs of hummingbirds ever taken, all enhanced by wonderful artwork.

A familiar sight across much of the Americas, hummingbirds have long captured the imagination and played an important part in myths, legends, and other aspects of human culture. Today, hummingbirds are some of the most popular of all birds, sought after by serious and casual birders alike. They are birds that inspire questions in anyone lucky enough to see them. How can they fly like that? Why are they so colorful? How many are there? And where and how do they live? This book answers these and many other questions, offering an enlightening and enjoyable guide to hummingbirds that only deepens their wonder.

A definitive yet accessible account of all aspects of hummingbird life; More than 500 spectacular color photographs; Specially commissioned illustrations; Facts and figures on status, population, distribution, and conservation designations of all the world’s hummingbirds.

Publisher: WildGuides

https://buteobooks.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=15154…

Birds, Travel, Videos, Views, Wildlife

Nature Views: Birdlife In Texas Hill Country (CBS)

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“Sunday Morning” takes us among hummingbirds and songbirds in the Texas Hill Country. Videographer: Scot Miller.

The Texas Hill Country is a geographic region of Central and South Texas, forming the southeast part of the Edwards Plateau. Given its location, climate, terrain, and vegetation, the Hill Country can be considered the border between the American Southeast and Southwest.

Animals, Travel, Videos, Views, Wildlife

8K Views: Colors Of The World’s Rainforests

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwZj6wr4JwU

In this video you can see rainforest butterflies, lizards, blue jeans poison dart frog, treefrogs, glass frogs, squirrel monkey, capuchin monkey, red colobus monkey, silvery gibbon, peccary, lemur, chameleon, jaguar, three toed sloth and beautiful colored birds as jacobin, toucan, maccaw, parrot, hummingbirds, tanager, motmot, quetzal, from different rainforest areas as Caribbean, Costa Rica, Brazil, Madagagascar.

Travel, Views, Wilderness, Wildlife

Views: Ecuador’s ‘Sword-Billed Hummingbirds’

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The sword-billed hummingbird has exclusive access to food that other birds simply cannot reach, but having such a long bill does have its drawbacks.

The sword-billed hummingbird is a neotropical species of hummingbird from the Andean regions of South America. It is the sole member of the genus Ensifera and is characterized by its unusually long bill; it is the only bird to have a beak longer than the rest of its body. 

Nature, Videos, Views, Wildlife

Nature Views: ‘Glamorous Hummingbirds’ – David Attenborough (BBC Video)

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This hummingbird has a spectacularly beautiful way to attract a mate.

The natural world is full of colours. For us, they are a source of beauty, but for animals they are a tool for survival. David Attenborough reveals the extraordinary ways in which animals use colour: to win a mate, to fight off rivals and to warn enemies.