some hummingbirds. [View all]

[cab67]

Three of these - the black-fronted mango, indigo-capped hummingbird, and rufous-tailed hummingbird - were taken at Jardin Encantado, a private residence about 35 miles west of Bogota. The owner has set up a battery of hummingbird feeders, and for a small fee, she'll let you watch from a porch. I saw 13 species of hummingbird - nine of them lifers - and was told it was a slow day for them. (There were other great birds there as well - thick-billed euphonia, several tanagers - so even without the hummingbirds, I'd have had a great time.)

In an earlier post, someone remarked that I must have high-end photographic equipment. In fact, I don't - it's a Canon EOS Rebel SL3. I used the 50-250 mm zoom that came with the kit.

I actually work on living and extinct crocodiles and alligators for a living - while my wife, who's a clinical psychologist, was working with some colleagues in Bogota, I split my time between chasing birds and playing with late caimans and gharials in the Geological Survey collections - so the camera just has to be able to take good photos of fossils and specimens from modern species. That I've learned to take halfway decent wildlife shots is incidental - I work on animals that used to occur everywhere, so I go everywhere, and I'm also a birder, so I generally head to wildlife-friendly areas when I'm not in the collections. The SL3, along with a couple of macro lenses, is perfect for that. It's not a very fast camera, so I haven't invested in a high-end telephoto lens; I'm also still making car payments and raising my daughter, so it's unlikely I'll be able to get one anyway.

The trip to Colombia was memorable for another reason - I took our daughter, who was just starting to walk, to a couple of local parks in the mornings. One of them turned out to be a great place to see sword-billed hummingbirds. (Look them up if you've not seen one. The beak is longer than the rest of the bird.) That I got to see one was a thrill, but being able to share that with my daughter made it that much cooler.


Sparkling violetear, botanical Gardens, Bogotá, Colombia:
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Black-fronted mango, San Francisco de Sales, Colombia:
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Indigo-capped hummingbird, San Francisco de Sales, Colombia:
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Rufous-tailed hummingbird, San Francisco de Sales, Colombia:
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Costa’s hummingbird, Tucson, AZ:
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