{"id":100979,"date":"2022-03-23T05:09:14","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T11:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=100979"},"modified":"2022-05-18T05:40:50","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T11:40:50","slug":"male-broad-tailed-hummingbird-and-thoughts-about-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/03\/23\/male-broad-tailed-hummingbird-and-thoughts-about-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"Male Broad-tailed Hummingbird And Thoughts About Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Broad-tailedBroad-tailed Hummingbird male landing on a chokecherry \u2013 Nikon D500, f5.6, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Hummingbirds delight me and this male Broad-tailed Hummingbird did just that when he landed on his favorite chokecherry branch a few years ago in the mountains. I wasn’t looking through my viewfinder when I photographed him landing. I had pre-focused on the branch and I was watching for him to fly in. When he flew in all I needed to do was fire a burst of shots. That step worked out well for me.<\/p>\n

I’ve had multiple projects going on at the same time and haven’t been able to get out into the field much but with warmer weather and more sunshine I have been thinking about spring and the birds I hope to see soon.<\/p>\n

Last year the continuing drought in Utah affected the shrubs and trees in many areas. Some of the fruiting shrubs and trees produced flowers but the flowers shriveled from the lack of moisture and didn’t set fruit like they normally do. In turn, that affected me as a bird photographer because birds that feed on the nectar of the flowers or eat the fruits weren’t coming to the flowers and shrubs like they had in previous years. Wildflowers were also affected by the drought and many of them didn’t bloom or didn’t bloom as profusely as they usually do.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Broad-tailed Hummingbird with an eye on me \u2013 Nikon D500, f5.6, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

We’ve had some moisture recently in northern Utah with some rain in the valleys and snow in the mountains but I don’t know if it will be enough to help the wildflowers and flowering trees and shrubs that birds and other wildlife depend on. When I have looked at reports about the ongoing drought it doesn’t look good and we didn’t have much snow over the winter.<\/p>\n

For now, I am going to hope that we get more spring rains and snowfall because we all<\/em> need it. This spring and summer I hope that I’ll be able to photograph hummingbirds like this little male regularly again.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

By the way, this little male hummingbird is featured on my home page<\/span><\/a> in a slider during the spring months.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Broad-tailed Hummingbird photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hummingbirds delight me and this male Broad-tailed Hummingbird did just that when he landed on his favorite chokecherry branch a few years ago in the mountains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,2340,4594,26,773],"tags":[4004,4897,2651,3940,6531,4052,4122,5370,6259,6043,2652,4123,4062,4069,4104,6532,2341,2315,7281],"class_list":["post-100979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-broad-tailed-hummingbirds","category-morgan-county","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-adult","tag-branch","tag-broad-tailed-hummingbird","tag-canyon","tag-chokecherry","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-forest","tag-forest-edge","tag-hummingbird","tag-hummingbirds-2","tag-landing","tag-male","tag-mountains","tag-perched","tag-prunus-virginiana","tag-selasphorus-platycercus","tag-summer-3","tag-western-chokecherry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/broad-tailed-hummingbird-male-chokecherry-mia-mcpherson-6965.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-qgH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":111594,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/03\/25\/broad-tailed-hummingbird-daydreams\/","url_meta":{"origin":100979,"position":0},"title":"Broad-tailed Hummingbird Daydreams","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 25, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been having Broad-tailed Hummingbird daydreams lately. I can't wait to hear their tiny wing beats and chirps once again high in the Wasatch Mountains.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Broad-tailed Hummingbird male in a chokecherry tree, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/broad-tailed-hummingbird-adult-male-chokecherry-mia-mcpherson-6760.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/broad-tailed-hummingbird-adult-male-chokecherry-mia-mcpherson-6760.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/broad-tailed-hummingbird-adult-male-chokecherry-mia-mcpherson-6760.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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