Hummingbirds of Ecuador - Booted Racket-tail
Jan 27, 2016 17:20:24 #
Just spent a wonderful few days photographing birds in the cloud forests of western Ecuador.
There are 132 species of hummingbirds in Ecuador and about 60 of them are found in the areas we went. We identified 29 different ones but I have no idea yet how many I actually photographed.
I do know I especially wanted to capture the Booted Racket-tail. He is a tiny little guy with a body about 1 1/2 inches long. Total with his tail and beak is probably about 4 inches.
Photographing flying hummers is especially challenging here in the forest during the present rainy season. Most of these were taken with my D800 at 3200 to 6400 iso. PP in Lightroom. I'm very pleased with how it controlled high-iso noise. Most were shot with the new 200-500 at f 5.6.
Hope you enjoy. I won't guarantee when I will be able to respond due to hit and miss internet here.
There are 132 species of hummingbirds in Ecuador and about 60 of them are found in the areas we went. We identified 29 different ones but I have no idea yet how many I actually photographed.
I do know I especially wanted to capture the Booted Racket-tail. He is a tiny little guy with a body about 1 1/2 inches long. Total with his tail and beak is probably about 4 inches.
Photographing flying hummers is especially challenging here in the forest during the present rainy season. Most of these were taken with my D800 at 3200 to 6400 iso. PP in Lightroom. I'm very pleased with how it controlled high-iso noise. Most were shot with the new 200-500 at f 5.6.
Hope you enjoy. I won't guarantee when I will be able to respond due to hit and miss internet here.
His long split tail ends in little blue "rackets"
(Download)
And the boots are little puffs of white feathers.
(Download)
They are especially shy and roost away from other more aggressive species. Maybe he is just protecting that delicate tail.
(Download)
Jan 27, 2016 17:24:07 #
GregWCIL wrote:
Just spent a wonderful few days photographing bird... (show quote)
Lovely set of flying jewels. :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
Jan 27, 2016 17:26:53 #
Jan 27, 2016 17:32:08 #
Jan 27, 2016 17:48:33 #
Jan 27, 2016 20:20:03 #
Jan 27, 2016 20:33:09 #
Jan 28, 2016 07:57:55 #
Jan 28, 2016 13:41:00 #
Jan 28, 2016 17:14:40 #
sb wrote:
Very nice! Must have been a great trip!
Actually, it still is a great trip. We are in Quito, waiting to head to the Galapagos Islands tomorrow. Btw, Steve, we watched your travel health videos which were quite helpful before our trip. We ended up not needing much since we stayed on the west side of the Andes and away from the Amazon basin.
Jan 28, 2016 21:54:02 #
GregWCIL wrote:
Just spent a wonderful few days photographing bird... (show quote)
Wow, nice...they are different than the one's I have seen here in Los Angeles..
Jan 28, 2016 22:39:45 #
Forrestloop wrote:
Wow, nice...they are different than the one's I have seen here in Los Angeles..
I'll post some more varieties when we get home in a couple of weeks. We saw 30 out of 132 hummingbird species found in Ecuador. It was quite amazing.
Jan 28, 2016 22:47:10 #
Jan 28, 2016 22:48:48 #
Excellent photography! excellent series! What an enviable trip! Eager to see more!
Feb 8, 2016 17:09:06 #
Thanks Sailorsmom and Carlysue. Haven't been ignoring you - but in the remote Galapagos Islands without phone or internet service since Jan. 28. Did take about 8000 photos in the last 10 days so I'll do lots of posting when I get home.
Here's one more teaser.
Here's one more teaser.
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