Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Anna's Hummingbird

Female Anna's Hummingbird
I wanted to share with you our hummingbird magic at El Presidio.  The hummingbirds have headed south except for our year round residents.  These were hummingbirds raised at El Presidio by their parents.  She sat and waited for me to get home and change the nectar.
I can stand literally inches away from her because I was with her when she hatched from that egg.....or during that crazy monsoon storm when they all hovered around me during my lightning photo shoot.  Her brother also flies near me and hangs around while I change the feeders.  He's not as trusting but he hangs in the air only inches away from my face sometimes:)  I always smile at their lack of patience.
If the feeder is low, they'll sit on the branches early in the morning and wait for me.
I'll be setting up a 3rd feeder again and I'm hoping no one steals this one.  Over the past year, we've had human attacks on 2 hummingbird feeders and one on the regular feeder in the courtyard.  A glass feeder was shattered, another stolen, and the regular seed feeder was yanked out of the ground.

But for the most part, these Anna's hummers have a nice life here on the property.  Protected.  Safe.  And secure up in their oak trees and other secret places that only their gardener friend knows about:)
This male Anna's was taken at Ramsey Canyon this summer but I wanted to show this guy again to help ID if you come and visit Arizona.  We have two males living on the property at El Presidio.  This past year, we had two active nests.  What will this year bring?

More to come....

33 comments:

  1. Beautiful birds. I wonder, anyone with even a trickle of sence could do such an evil thing. I think that they have lost the trickle.

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    1. How ... odd, to destroy bird feeders. Better luck with the next one!

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  2. Nie rozumiem ludzkiej głupoty. Jak można niszczyć i kraść karmniki dla ptaków. Chyba nie robią tego dla zysku, bo co to za zysk. Kolibry są cudowne i można Ci pozazdrość takiej bliskości z nimi. Pozdrawiam cieplutko.
    I do not understand human stupidity. How can you destroy and steal the bird feeders. You're not doing this for profit, because what kind of profit. Hummingbirds are wonderful and you can be the envy of intimacy with them. Regards warm.

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  3. Hummingbird’s way of flight is so cute. As I see them more often at your blog, I’ve come to want to see them in person more and more.

    Yoko

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  4. Chris, awesome shots of your hummers. They are such pretty little birds. Have a great day!

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  5. They are beautiful! I miss my hummers already.

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  6. Superb post from the Humming bird whisperer.

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  7. Oh wow Chris, these are wonderful. I can see why you love birding so much. I only hope that one day I can get shots like these. The birds that feed in my garden, the galahs, rosellas, corollas etc also let me know when there's no seed left.

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  8. Gorgeous captures of the sweet little hummers, Chris.. I'm green with envy. Thanks for sharing :)

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  9. They are so cool! I've never been able to get close to them at all. How lucky you are to be able to do so.

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  10. I'm impressed that you've made friends with these hummingbirds. Good onya!

    Hmmmm. You've had feeders stolen and vandalized?! Gotta wonder about some humans!

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  11. Does this mean the Anna's don't migrate? Or just these two siblings? Wonderful shots. Very sad that someone would steal/break hummer feeders.

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    1. These birds stay in Southern Arizona all year round....including these two cuties:) And so do the Costa's. And dare I say Global Warming has allowed others to stay here as well when they would normally migrant. But they such things are happening:) Yet nature indicates otherwise:) All one needs to do is look at the migration(or lack of)patterns.

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  12. What a sweet face! It must feel wonderful to have them trust you as they do.

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  13. Those birds are just beautiful. There are a couple hummer in my garden now and I am setting up a feeder for them.

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  14. Fantastic photographs, beautiful birds. Discovering such views is a wonderful adventure. I am greeting

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  15. i love that they trust you so well - hopefully they will stay safe from others who may not be so kind. :)

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  16. Beautiful photos Chris. I love the hummingbirds.

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  17. Fantastic Chris, to have birds so trusting must be marvelous. Pity about the scum who smash up the feeders :-(

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    1. I don't know why they do it. I get the stealing bit but smashing one on the ground got me a tad angry.

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  18. I am so glad I managed to get over to visit your blog today Chris. I really, really love your delightful little hummers and remember how enchanted I was by that beautiful purplish throat, so very beautiful and so are the photos of them, my favourite is the last but one. How sad that the feeders would be stolen or damaged, I wonder what makes people do such thoughtless things.

    I was very concerned to read on an earlier post that you nearly got lost while walking in the desert and remember you once said you don't carry a mobile (cell) phone, you really should Chris, if only for emergencies, please do think about it!

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    1. Hi there:) I have a cell phone coming because of these incidents. We had a discussion about this and decided it was time to get a cell phone. Starting next month I will have one attached to the belt and it will have some fun camera features! Can't wait for that little option. It was joke that the only reason I was getting the phone was for the panoramic feature:) Maybe....but now it's a sure thing. A cell phone is in my forecast.

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  19. Magical captures of these beautiful hummingbirds! How lucky you are to have some year round residents. It really is fun when they feel comfortable around you and feel safe in close proximity. Your love of hummingbirds is evident in this outstanding post!

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  20. All hummingbirds are very cool but two last pictures are outstanding!

    xoxo, Juliana | PJ’ Happies :) | PJ’ Ecoproject

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  21. How precious! It is our job to take care of the creatures and I can't help but think they know and appreciate what we do.
    I don't know how many times I've seen the birds look in the window when the feeder is empty.

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  22. great pics of the Anna's! I especially like your first picture

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  23. So sad that people have to resort to vandalizing bird feeders to get their kicks :(

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  24. I'm pretty sure these are the hummers I have up here, Chris. Although it seems that the male's neck only flashes red and not the entire head so maybe not? I don't understand why anyone would steal or damage bird feeders! ~ tracy

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  25. Super photos of your Anna's Hummingbirds Chris. We are lucky enough to have them here year round too! They are such amazing birds!

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  26. Wonderful photos of the hummingbirds. Really great that they are not afraid of you and come so close waiting for the feeders to be filled. Who would want to take the feeders away and break them? Just random acts of vandalism? Really hard to understand!

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  27. Lovely photos of the hummingbirds - I can never see enough of these beautiful birds. You are so lucky :) Shame about the feeders though - its hard to understand why someone would want to do that.

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  28. They really can become like pets.

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Thanks for stopping by!