Male hummingbirds are much more spectacularly feathered than female hummingbirds. The majority of hummers we saw this year in Madera Canyon were Broad-billed Hummingbirds but Black-chinned, Anna’s, Allen’s, and Magnificent Hummingbirds were frequent but more elusive targets for us.
The male of all hummingbird species is much more colorful then the females who are usually drab. The male Broad-billed looks like a tiny jewel of irridescent blues and greens. Our camera setup with flashes and soft boxes designed to light up their colorful gorgets worked perfectly. Here are two shots taken on our last full day in Madera Canyon, the first is the colorful male Broad-billed Hummingbird. He has a couple of new feathers emerging as white “pins” in his gorget. The second, a drab female, in an similar pose, is a female Broad-billed Hummingbird.
