ML141516061
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Adult Male - X
Observation details
Sergey and I were riding slowly along Middle Dr. W when the call of a Selasphorus hummingbird made us pause. We pulled our bikes over and starting looking- sure enough, a male hummingbird was zipping around tall eucalyptus trees on the South side of the road. What happened next was magical: I spotted a female perched in a bush just below the male's perch, and the male prompt began to perform his display flights. Cutting wide, u-shaped swoops through the air, he trilled passionately right above our heads. The trilling stopped for a moment, and we thought he was done. In reality, he was preparing the brilliant finish: a steep dive at incredible speed accompanied with a whistling (reminiscent of a falling missile). Video here: https://youtu.be/OtqowtwefxU. We were both speechless and blown away. I'll never forget contentment and joy of sitting down for lunch under the towering trees, the two of us witnessing a spectacular demonstration by such a minuscule bird.
Technical information
- Model
- NIKON D5200
- ISO
- 800
- Focal length
- 300 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/5.6
- Shutter speed
- 1/1000 sec
- Dimensions
- 1328 pixels x 960 pixels
- Original file size
- 1.22 MB