Magnetic Lobster

The hummingbirds around here seem to stay active until about 20 minutes after sunset. This photograph was taken at this late hour using a flash.

I think this is an Anna’s hummingbird, either a female or immature male. I think the yellow neck is from pollen.

This is a male Anna’s hummingbird, which has an iridescent red head and throat, but only when he’s facing you. From other angles, these feathers are dark brown.

The hummingbirds I’ve encountered will fly away if they see you approaching, especially if they are below the level of your head. (Presumably they have evolved to be sensitive to other birds swooping down from above, especially those with beaks shaped like my camera.) I’ve gotten close to hummingbirds by taking a few steps closer each time one has his head buried in a flower, staying down low, and then hoping that when he emerges from the flower he ignores me and moves even closer.

Before I discovered this method, I spent some time in a tent that I set up near the agapanthus flowers, hoping that the hummingbirds would find the tent to be non-threatening enough to feed on the adjacent flowers.  (I did this one recent Saturday morning in the back yard of our neighbors, who are remarkably tolerant of my eccentric behavior.)  The tent method is slightly less successful and substantially more hot and unpleasant than the conventional stalking approach.

I’m guessing that the hummingbird pictured below is an Allen’s or possibly a Rufous.

It’s hard to get a straight front-view picture of a hummingbird. If a hummingbird is facing you, the chances are good that there’s a flower between the two of you.

Lately I’ve been spending a while photographing the hummingbirds in our back yard and at over at our neighbors’ house.  Here is the first of several of those photographs.

Guarding our porch a couple of nights ago.

UPDATE: This might be a Western Spotted Orbweaver.