Curious Hummingbird

Hummingbirds are curious creatures I think. I see them frequenting the feeders and flowers of the area, and don't seem all that bothered by people unless they move quickly. I suspect they know they can move faster than us, so there's no reason to fear anything slower than them.

On this evening, I was photographing the setting sun and noticed the hummingbirds flying around, so I couldn't resist trying to capture them on camera. Of course, the situation couldn't be worse - low light, shooting directly into the setting sun, and a silhouetted bird - all of which call for slow shutters speeds, and high ISO which usually ruins images. These were taken with an ISO of 10,000 and a slow shutter speed (for a 600mm lens in low light) of 1/400th of a second.

I hope to capture more of this guy in the weeks to come, but using a fast shutter to stop the 3000 beat per minute wings. With the correct light, and up to a 1/32,000 of a second shutter speed, I should have no problem freezing them, the challenge is getting them in focus.  

While not perfectly happy with these results, they do tell a story of this little guy's curiosity with me and my camera. He would feed for a bit, then fly toward my camera and sit there checking me out, then fly long and high loop-de-loop arcs over me. I have seen this before when other hummingbirds come near, the male often flies in these arcs, I'm not sure if it's intimidation, or something else. 

It is interesting to watch them, and pretty easy as they need to feed every 25 minutes or so, and often frequent the same flowers or feeders. In fact, hummingbirds have been known to visit the same feeders each year, and during migration, they visit the exact same feeder on the exact same day of the year! And many of these hummingbirds fly over a portion of the Gulf of Mexico, not bad for a tiny creature that drinks nectar.