Creature Feature: Hummingbirds / by Lori Bigler

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I know this isn't seasonally appropriate. Consider it an attack on the potential for seasonal affective disorder. Hummingbirds always brighten the day.

As I pointed out in the final bits of the November newsletter, I've been sitting on some video of hummingbirds. This was shot in our yard in September as the wee-winged-wonders made their fall migration to South America. In the spring we saw only a few of the little birds, but in fall was saw perhaps a dozen. We keep six hummingbird feeders in the yard to attract the little creatures. We have also planted some of their favorite comestibles.

I'm interested in how to photograph and record the little birds. The video from which the above frame was taken was shot with a Logitech Rally 4K PTZ camera. It's a glorified webcam intended for video conference use. It did a decent job capturing the action at a feeder mounted on on front porch, at least until the afternoon sun overtook the image sensor. This 3 minute clip was extracted from about four hours of continuous recording.

When the little birds return in the spring I hope to have some way to record them at a high-frame rate, so we can slow down their movement for closer study.

If you share our fascination with the little birds, you might also appreciate the Cornell University Birdcams. They include a West Texas location that's known for its hummingbirds.