Anna's Hummingbird Nesting
by Robert Bales
Title
Anna's Hummingbird Nesting
Artist
Robert Bales
Medium
Photograph - Photo
Description
Open-wooded or shrubby areas and mountain meadows along the Pacific coast from British Columbia to Arizona make up Anna's breeding habitat. The female raises the young without the assistance of the male. The female bird builds a large nest in a shrub or tree, or in vines or on wires. The round, 3.8-to-5.1-centimetre (1.5 to 2.0 in) diameter nest is built of very small twigs, lichen and other mosses, and often lined with downy feathers or animal hair. The nest materials are bound together with spider silk or other sticky materials. They are known to nest early as mid-December and as late as June.
Unlike most hummingbirds, the male Anna's Hummingbird sings during courtship. The song is thin and squeaky. During the breeding season, males can be observed performing a remarkable display, called a display dive, on their territories. The males also use the dive display to drive away rivals or intruders of other species. When a female flies onto a male's territory, he rises up approximately 30 metres (98 ft) before diving over the recipient. As he approaches the bottom of the dive the males reach an average speed of 27 m/s, which is 385 body lengths per second. At the bottom of the dive the male travels 23 metres per second (51 mph), and produces a loud sound described by some as an "explosive squeak" with his outer tail-feathers.
Uploaded
November 19th, 2012
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Viewed 537 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/17/2024 at 10:56 AM
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Comments (8)
Marvin Blaine
Beyond Beautiful Robert! Great Capture! F!
Robert Bales replied:
Thanks so much, Marvin!! Hope to see some more this winter in Arizona!! Thanks for the LF!!
CheyAnne Sexton
just incredible. I keep looking and looking. I have a video of their mating dance, when the male goes so high and the rushes down. There was a PBS series done on hummers. They talked about being the males feathers that splay out at the bottom of the dip makes those whirry sounds. I've been very lucky in being underneath the dips in his dance and find thelittle female inside twittering to him at the same moment of his whirring. It's quite incredible to experience. Adore all your captures and the costas are awesome. We don't get those here in northern New Mexico. f/v
Robert Bales replied:
Thanks so much for the information. I have never seen this, but I have read about it. Than ks for the comments and the FV! So glad you enjoyed the photos on the hummers..
Kathy Baccari
Just beautiful Robert and such a difficult nest to even find. Fantastic capture. f/v :)
Robert Bales replied:
Yes it is hard, but this one was at eye level and the hummer almost took my wife's head off before we saw it. Thanks for the f/v!