EVERY SUMMER I try to get to a local preserve frequented by ruby-throated hummingbirds. It’s a good place to meet other photographers. A bright and sunny day gave me the assist I needed to catch this lovely hummingbird.
Robert Kaplan ROSLYN HEIGHTS, NEW YORK
I CAPTURED THIS photo of a female Anna’s hummingbird at a Rockin’ Deep Purple salvia. I live in the Skagit Valley and am usually able to photograph Anna’s in my backyard all throughout the year.
Jamie Bartram SEDRO-WOOLLEY, WASHINGTON
MY FAVORITE BIRDS to photograph are hummingbirds, and I’m so glad they love the rose of Sharon bush outside near my deck.
Karen Smith NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
We are lucky enough to have Costa’s hummingbirds year-round. Recently, this gorgeous male perched outside our kitchen window every day for about two weeks. As if on cue, he would wait for me to come to the window with my camera and then position himself in such a way as to show off his beautiful gorget.
Carla Ritter IVINS, UTAH
As I was hiding behind a weigela shrub, trying to photograph the hummingbirds gathering nectar from the pink flowers, I saw this juvenile Anna’s sitting inside of the plant. I felt so fortunate to capture it before it noticed I was there.
Donna Ruiz CAMERON PARK, CALIFORNIA
I TOOK 30 PHOTOS of this beautiful female broad-tailed hummingbird as she sipped nectar from my Cold Hardy Pink salvia. I am blessed to see these flying jewels from about mid-July to the first week of October each year.
Linda Minns GOODWELL, OKLAHOMA
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Sense or Nonsense? - Why some birds can taste and smell - but others can't
Does a porcelain berry taste like a blueberry to a gray catbird? Does a block of lard smell like frying bacon to a northern flicker? The short answer is no. While some avian species do have a well-adapted sense of taste or smell, they can't distinguish between flavors and odors the way humans can. They're not picking up every ingredient in the suet you put out, says José Ramírez-Garofalo, an ornithology researcher at Rutgers University in New Jersey and the director of Freshkills Biological Station in Staten Island, New York.
Maple Mania - Amazing facts about this fall foliage mainstay
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Even if you haven't heard of Canada jays, you've heard of their relatives. Members of the corvid family, they belong to the same group as American crows, blackbilled magpies, and jays including blue, Steller's and scrub. "Unlike many of the other jays, a Canada jay doesn't have a crest of any kind; it just has a rounded head," says Dale Gentry, director of conservation for Audubon Upper Mississippi River.In 2018, the Canada jay's name was changed from gray jay, but Dale thinks the former adjective was fitting. "Most of its body is shades of gray with some white," he says. "There are different subspecies that have different physical traits, but most of them have some lighter coloring on their foreheads, upper breasts and throats, each with a darker streak that starts at each eye and goes back."
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