Incredible Anna's

Wednesday afternoon I had a fantastic time photographing Anna's Hummingbirds in my backyard. There were about eight hummingbirds in all but the star of the show had to be a little Napoleon that kept all of the hummingbirds away from the feeder and his little perch above it. He would settle nervously onto the perch and spy out in all directions, chattering his defense of the feeder in defiance to all who would listen. Periodically he would dash out and chase off any intruders he felt were invading his space only to settle back nervously onto his little branch again. This gave me plenty of opportunities to photograph him displaying his gorget for all the world to see. It was like a little red light bulb turning on and off. He was an incredible sight to behold. This image was one of my favorite among many. The image was created with a Canon 7D and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto at 310mm with a 36mm extension tube for very close focusing.Camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 800,F 11.0 at 1/30th of a sec. The camera was supported on a Manfrotto 055 XPROB tripod with a Bogen 3055 heavy duty ballhead. The technique used to create this image is covered the book, "Secrets of Backyard Bird Photography", in Chapter 6 Photographing Hummingbirds on page 56. May you have a blessed day with the warmth of God's love and protection all around you, chris