We set up the camera pointing at the hummingbird feeder on our front porch to try and take pictures of the birdies as they perched. But, holy smokes were we surprised to see a bird perch on a nearby vine and begin its performance, going through his checklist and pre-flight maintenance routine.

Embedded above, watch on YouTube or download the high-resolution Quicktime Version (3 MB).

This isn’t a time-lapse movie, this is real time.
Continue reading Video: Hummingbird preens like he means it. →

We’ve been taking photos of birds around the south end of the San Francisco Bay. We’ve cataloged some of the interesting ones and put them up as the South Bay Birds Catalog. Pictured above, Anna’s Hummingbird, male. It’s smaller than it looks.