Photographing this nest was truly one of the highlights of my year so far. I would never have found it on my own. It was the size of a shot glass, although it looks magnified at 700mm. This was a very difficult nest to photograph. Aside from being high, shooting from a spot full of poison ivy and tree stumps, bad light and having that annoying leaf always in the frame, every time the wind blew, you had to locate the nest all over again b/c it was so tiny.
The hatchlings are altricial at birth, born without feathers and blind, requiring a lot of care. It takes them 5-6 weeks to fledge. This photo was taken 4 days before they fledged.
Canon 1D3, Canon 500L & 1.4
F7.1, 1/320, ISO 1250, fill flash
Feisol tripod, Jobu head
Hi Marina,
What a find! You are very fortunate to see this!
I love this image. HA of chicks is excellent and I like the vertical comp.
That leaf is really distracting though.I say clone it out.
I like the moss on the nest and the greens in the image. I also like the web and debris caught in the nest.
So, how does a person find a hummingbird nest?
Gail
Marina - Great to see and capture. I agree with you and Gail, that leaf is annoying. I like this as a vertical with the web but would also like to see it as a horizontal or, due to the shape of the nest, a square crop might work here as well. Congrats on a great find!
What a delightful pair of chicks, and can appreciate how hard it is to spot tiny little nests like these build...not that I've ever seen one, or will ever see one in Australia...sighhhhhh. Love the way their little heads are popping up at both the same angle and the nest detail is interesting with the lichen, no wonder they are so hard to spot. A tad soft...understandably, and agree regarding cropping and cloning out that leaf
First of all Marina what an amazing find and I am sooo glad I got to see and shoot this nest as well. Saying that.. I have to agree with you on keeping the leaf there. Yes it is distracting and we made jokes about getting really good with a bb gun but the fact is that is nature and it is what we saw and shot. It is pretty obviopus that this nest was built in the middle of trees and it does make for a great environmental shot.This always makes for a good argument because I have to wonder what would people have said if it weren't for photoshop and post processing. Are we supposed to always have the perfect clean environment, beach,perch... That is not reality and I personally don't feel the need to always remove things for an image to work although I have nothing against those who do. I don't find the image soft whatsoever and I am actually quite surprised how sharp it is given the low light we had and the use of the teleconverters on top of that. Lets be so grateful we got to witness such an awesome thing and have great images to take with us now that those two cuties have fledged.
Greetings. It's really great to see a nest with a pair of fledglings. Thanks for posting this one. I've been watching hummers for a number of years now & have yet to see a nest... always deeply buried in the middle of some large set of bushes. The webs present are interesting, I thought they used them for nest building. I kinda like the comp as is.
I really like the comp as is as I think there is a nice balance to it, the environmental feel (a yes to keeping the leaf), and the great view of both heads. What a special opportunity this was for you. Thank you for sharing this. What a find and great capture. Most of us will never have this privilege.
Sweetness! Love this one, Marina, Leaf and all. The lichens on the nest, as well as the structure of the sticks supporting the nest made this a perfect vertical capture. Thanks for sharing it.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird Fledglings
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