We discovered this nest-building beauty during my last Costa Rica workshop. The problem was that the nest was in the lowest branch on a tree and was pretty heavily shaded. We set up an off-camera flash and tried to light the bird in a way that resembles a ray of sunlight shining on the bird through the canopy.
Canon 1D Mark IV, 300mm, f/8,1/60, ISO 400, -2 EC, fill flash, tripod
Tell me more about using a flash on a nesting bird -- something I would never think of doing. You said he was deep shade and I see a catchlight that I assume to be from the flash. I make this comment more from a learning standpoint as I read somewhere in some comment on some forum that flash on a nesting bird should not be used.
I should have stated in the title that this was a nest-building bird (it's now corrected). There were no eggs yet. The hummer didn't mind our presence in the least; it made repeated trips to and from the nest with nesting material. My mistake!
Last edited by Doug Brown; 09-01-2010 at 09:51 AM.
To address your question about using flash on nesting birds, I'll add this from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's page on responsible bird photography:
Questions and Answers
Q. Does the use of one or more photographic flash units harm the eyes of the birds?
A. There is no scientific evidence, one way or the other, that the use of one or more flash units creates a significant problem for the bird. Presumably the effect would be similar to what it is for humans, but no one knows for sure.
Photographers have been using multiple flash arrays since the late 1940s to document the entire nesting cycles of birds such as Great Horned Owls and various songbirds and hummingbirds. The process does not have a record of causing the birds to abandon the nest or of individual birds disappearing. Greater care should be taken when photographing birds that are actively feeding at night.
Last edited by Doug Brown; 09-01-2010 at 09:53 AM.
Hi, Doug. Yes, this was fun as an example of solving a number of common problems in rainforest bird photography (no light on subject, poor background, awkward shooting access, etc.), and I think the result looks good.
By the way, I can confirm that the bird really did not mind us. In fact, I was back there about 10 or 11 weeks after this shot was taken and was told by a friend (who is a bird guide at the lodge) that the nesting had gone well and the chicks had flown. This species seems to build its nests near concrete walkways used by staff and tourists there. I have no scientific data to back this up but I wonder if nest proximity to human traffic doesn't actually afford some protection from potential predators. There are plenty of trees with suitable branches for violet-headed hummingbird nests in the area but I have seen 4 or 5 nests right along paths there and have seen this species do this at other lodges too.
Nest-Building Violet-Headed Hummingbird
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