Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Most of the time when I'm around flowers I'm expecting to get lepidopteran (butterflies and moths) or hymenopteran (i.e. bees and wasps) pictures, but sometimes you get a special guest star. In this case a Ruby-throated Hummingbird was on the scene. I don't get a lot of pictures of these birds, probably because they're small and fast, and I'm neither of these.

As with the 1 I photographed the previous year, this looks like a female. Though the throat of the males aren't always ruby colored, the alternative is black rather than the white you see here. Though they can appear legless, they do have tiny little legs; check out last year's picture if you want to verify that. While almost all birds walk or hop, hummingbird legs are so small that they're relegated to slowly shuffling on them.

September 8, 2022 at Fairview Farm
Photo 248393418, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Though they're known to prefer red/orange flowers, they're not maniacs about it. This one was definitely giving the light purple flowers a go.

September 8, 2022 at Fairview Farm




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