{"id":58286,"date":"2019-06-01T05:49:17","date_gmt":"2019-06-01T11:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=58286"},"modified":"2025-06-13T16:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T21:32:16","slug":"broad-tailed-hummingbird-bliss-in-the-wasatch-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/06\/01\/broad-tailed-hummingbird-bliss-in-the-wasatch-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Broad-tailed Hummingbird Bliss in The Wasatch Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MaleMale Broad-tailed Hummingbird at a blooming Black Twinberry Honeysuckle – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I spent yesterday morning enjoying a Broad-tailed Hummingbird bliss in the Wasatch Mountains<\/span><\/a> by finding their favorite perches and photographing them feeding, resting, and defending their territories.<\/p>\n

I found what appear to be several favorite perches for the territorial male hummingbirds I saw and because I did I was also able to see where some of them flew to when they felt the need to feed on nectar. One of the little male Broad-tailed Hummingbirds perched out over the water and would fly down to get nectar from blooming Black Twinberry Honeysuckles (Lonicera involucrata<\/em>) that weren’t far away.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Broad-tailed Hummingbird feeding from Black Twinberry Honeysuckle blooms – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The Broad-tailed Hummingbird was close enough that I was able to see him swoop into the honeysuckles, lock focus and photograph him as he got nectar from these native wildflowers. I have a nice long series of photos of him hovering in front of these plants.<\/p>\n

\"Broad-tailedBroad-tailed Hummingbird male checking out Golden Currant blooms – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Later in the morning I had my Jeep parked where I knew another Broad-tailed Hummingbird male has a favorite perch and I was able to photograph him as he checked out the blooming Golden Currants (Ribes aureum<\/em>) that are nearby.<\/p>\n

I like that these photos show the hummingbird small in the frame because with my settings for depth of field I was able to get the bird and most of the currant sharply in focus, had he and the currant bush been closer I wouldn’t have been able to do that easily.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Broad-tailed Hummingbird getting nectar from a Golden Currant bloom – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The background behind the hummingbird and the currant bush is actually a gravel road, I was on a hill shooting down towards the hummingbird and the Golden Currant. Normally I don’t like having roads in my bird photos but because there are no details in the road surface I find that I don’t mind it for a background at all in this series of photos.<\/p>\n

Golden Currants are also called Buffalo Currants and Clove Currants.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Broad-tailed Hummingbird looking up at the sky – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the same male Broad-tailed Hummingbird that I photographed at the Golden Currant bush on his favorite nearby perch. I’m not sure what he was looking up at but I liked the pose and the simplicity of the photo along with the little bit of iridescence that showed in his gorget.<\/p>\n

\"Broad-tailedBroad-tailed Hummingbird male shaking his feathers – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I also wanted to share this photo of the male Broad-tailed Hummingbird shaking his feathers not long after he landed on “his” perch.<\/p>\n

I have many more photos of the Broad-tailed Hummingbirds I photographed yesterday and I hope to share more of them in the future but these six are enough for now.<\/p>\n

I loved getting these Broad-tailed Hummingbird photos yesterday and savored my time with them.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

I spent yesterday morning enjoying a Broad-tailed Hummingbird bliss in the Wasatch Mountains by finding their favorite perches and photographing them feeding, resting, and defending their territories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":148478,"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":[27,2340,4594,1731,26,773],"tags":[4004,6601,6603,6098,6557,2651,7254,7255,7534,7159,5025,4040,4052,4122,7253,6608,9360,4174,6043,2652,6600,4062,4302,3912,7252,2341,4502,6607,4307],"class_list":["post-58286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-broad-tailed-hummingbirds","category-morgan-county","category-summit-county-utah","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-adult","tag-black-twin-berry","tag-black-twinberry-honeysuckle","tag-blooming","tag-blooms","tag-broad-tailed-hummingbird","tag-buffalo-currant","tag-clove-currant","tag-currant","tag-currants","tag-feathers","tag-feeding","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-golden-currant","tag-honeysuckle","tag-honeysuckles","tag-hovering-2","tag-hummingbird","tag-hummingbirds-2","tag-lonicera-involucrata","tag-male","tag-native","tag-nectar","tag-ribes-aureum","tag-selasphorus-platycercus","tag-shaking","tag-shrubs","tag-wildflowers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/broad-tailed-hummingbird-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-3837.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-fa6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":58353,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/06\/04\/photographing-broad-tailed-hummingbirds-in-the-wasatch-mountains\/","url_meta":{"origin":58286,"position":0},"title":"Photographing Broad-tailed Hummingbirds In The Wasatch Mountains","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I had more fun photographing Broad-tailed Hummingbirds in the Wasatch Mountains yesterday morning, probably more fun than should be legal.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Broad-tailed Hummingbird showing his colorful gorget, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/broad-tailed-hummingbird-male-landing-mia-mcpherson-7590.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/broad-tailed-hummingbird-male-landing-mia-mcpherson-7590.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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