With the hummingbirds coming to the feeder regularly, it was time to get some flight shots. On June 5, I swapped out the base of the feeder for the one without the perches and set up my 500mm lens 4.5 meters away (the minimum focusing distance). I had the 6D Mark II on remote trigger duty near the sunflower seed feeders trying to get magpies and blackbirds (and got absolutely nothing), so I was using the older 5D Mark III on the big lens. I consider the two cameras interchangeable in terms of image quality, and I didn't need the 6D's additional features for this session. The 5D burst speed is slightly slower than the 6D (6.0 versus 6.5 frames per second), and its buffer overruns more quickly, but for the most part it kept up.

I started sitting in a chair, so the background was blue sky. It took a while for the action to start, so I was glad I was sitting. After finally getting some good shots in the books, I raised the tripod and shot standing. The background switched from blue to the blurred green of the lawn. I switched between sitting and standing one more time over the course of the afternoon, and wrapped up eight hours of shooting (and tending to my barbeque smoker) with a roosting shot as dusk fell. The different lighting conditions and the different backgrounds made for some interesting results.

There are three hummingbirds coming to the feeder this year, all of the Calliope species. I only have one shot of the male, distinctive for magenta streaks on his throat. The other two birds are either female or immature. Calliopes are all I've seen in the yard since 2021 when a couple other species visited.

This first image shows the iridescence of the hummingbird's plumage quite nicely. It's hard to appreciate on this small image, so click on the image to see a larger version and start the slide show. The next 21 images in the gallery are in chronological order from 12:46 pm to 8:24 pm. The remainder of the images in the gallery are roosting shots taking in the days prior to June 5.

Green

Blue

Dusk approaches