2023—View from the Top

Our shooting gallery at Santa Rita Lodge in Madera Canyon in Arizona drew at least ten (maybe 11) species of hummingbirds this past week. The most common species was the jewel-like Broad-billed Hummingbird, a tiny, feisty hummer sporting emerald and sapphire feathers and a bright orange bill. The Broad-billed hummers acclimated quickly to our presence, even escorting Moose at first morning light when he put the feeders out and sipping nectar within ten inches of our faces at the tiny feeders we all had perched on the end of our Nikkor Z400mm f/4.5 lenses. This is the view I had; my left eye looking through the view finder at the birds coming and going from the feeders in the distance and watching this bird with my right eye as it drank from the small feeder perched on the end of my lens. N.B. The feeders are red plastic and the nectar inside is clear as shown in the feeder on top of my lens. Red dyes in some commercial hummingbird foods could be prove harmful to the birds according to the Audubon Society. Taken with my iPhone 14.