{"id":89263,"date":"2021-05-28T05:22:54","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T11:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=89263"},"modified":"2025-09-20T09:40:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T14:40:31","slug":"female-black-chinned-hummingbird-and-a-knothole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/05\/28\/female-black-chinned-hummingbird-and-a-knothole\/","title":{"rendered":"Female Black-chinned Hummingbird And A Knothole"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FemaleFemale Black-chinned Hummingbird hovering at a knothole \u2013 Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday while out in the sky island mountains of the West Desert I spotted a female Black-chinned Hummingbird<\/span><\/a> repeatedly checking out a knothole in a tree. This photo shows her long tongue sticking out of her bill.<\/p>\n

\"FemaleFemale Black-chinned Hummingbird checking out a knothole \u2013 Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The hummingbird was quite a distance from me but I took photos of her anyway for documentary purposes. I found her behavior interesting as she hovered in front of the knothole.<\/p>\n

\"FemaleFemale Black-chinned Hummingbird with her bill in a knothole \u2013 Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Then the female Black-chinned Hummingbird would stick her bill inside of the knothole. I had no idea what she was doing but continued to photograph her.<\/p>\n

\"FemaleFemale Black-chinned Hummingbird with her head in a knothole \u2013 Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

To my surprise the female Black-chinned Hummingbird stuck her whole head into the knothole. I’ve never seen a hummingbird do this before and it intrigued me because this behavior momentarily left the hummingbird vulnerable to predators since she couldn’t see outside of the knothole.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult female Black-chinned Hummingbird with stuff falling off of her bill \u2013 Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When the female hummingbird withdrew her head from the knothole bits of something fell off of her bill and for a brief moment there was a clump of stuff stuck to it.<\/p>\n

The hummingbird may have been looking into the knothole for insects or she may have been looking for a spiderweb in the hole to use for nesting material. I really have no idea what she was doing with her head stuck in the knothole and won’t presume to to know what she was thinking.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult female Black-chinned Hummingbird hovering and showing her tongue \u2013 Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The female Black-chinned Hummingbird hovered in front of the knothole for a split second then she flew off into the forest. Later in the morning I saw this behavior a second time but by then the knothole was in the shade and the photos I took lacked the clarity of these images. Whatever the hummingbird was looking for in the knothole is unknown to me but I found her behavior fascinating.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Black-chinned Hummingbird photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n

By the way, I think the shutter on my Nikon D500 has died. I have taken 611,760 photos on that shutter which is a pretty long life. I’m glad I had my D810 with me as a backup or I would have missed out on taking these photos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday while out in the sky island mountains of the West Desert I spotted a female Black-chinned Hummingbird repeatedly checking out a knothole in a tree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157058,"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":[27,1778,358,26,1314],"tags":[4004,4460,4226,1779,3940,4070,4052,4122,5370,6043,11748,4069,10452,165,4427,4076],"class_list":["post-89263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-black-chinned-hummingbirds","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","tag-adult","tag-archilochus-alexandri","tag-behavior","tag-black-chinned-hummingbird","tag-canyon","tag-female","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-forest","tag-hummingbird","tag-knothole","tag-mountains","tag-sky-island-mountains","tag-spring","tag-tree","tag-trees"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-chinned-hummingbird-female-knothole-mia-mcpherson-2386.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-ndJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9356,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/09\/02\/female-black-chinned-hummingbird-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":89263,"position":0},"title":"Female 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Hummingbird In The Wasatch Mountains","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I saw this female Black-chinned Hummingbird land on a willow branch not far from where I sat in a mobile blind and I was delighted to photograph her.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Black-chinned Hummingbird perched on a thin branch, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/black-chinned-hummingbird-female-perched-mia-mcpherson-6552.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/black-chinned-hummingbird-female-perched-mia-mcpherson-6552.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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