I watched and took part in the hummingbird banding at Brazos Bend State Park last Sunday morning. For the first 45 minutes, we were unable to catch any birds to band because this little fellow was intent on making sure none of his fellow hummingbirds got anywhere near the feeder where we set the trap – his feeder. He was so preoccupied in fact that I was a mere 15 feet or less from him.

I was in position to shoot other aspects of the banding process, but it turned out great for getting shots of this feisty male Ruby-throated Hummingbird. When not chasing the others, he was perched on a loose wire on an old windmill. The shots were taken hand held, and even using only the center focus point, the hummingbird was so small that the distant background and the structure of the windmill kept playing games with the camera’s (Canon EOS 50D with a Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens) autofocus. I switched to manual focus and set up so that his perch was in sharp focus and waited for him to return.

He was fully side lit from the morning sun. There was a row of trees several hundred feet behind him that were still in some heavy shade which provided a nice dark background. The lens compression of the telephoto lens completely blew out the background details even at F/8. The warm sidelight provided good contrast and helped define his tiny little breast feathers and the intricate barbules of the feathers around his neck. While the side lighting did a good job of highlighting his golden-green crown, the angle of light didn’t accentuate the fiery red of his throat that much.

Check back soon. I’ll have a blog post up with the details and photos of the hummingbird banding process.