Tim writes: The Anna’s Hummingbird is about 10cm from bill tip to tail and weighs less than five grams. It was named after Princess Anna d’Essling the 19th century Duchess of Rivoli, wife of Prince Victor Massena and son of one of Napoleon’s Marshalls. It was named by René Lesson, a French naturalist who also had the Pool Frog (Pelophylax lessonae) named after him. They used to be restricted to the extreme south of the Pacific coast of the US (plus Mexico) but exotic garden flowers providing nectar have enabled the bird to colonise this Pacific coast right up to northern Canada. Garden nectar feeders have even enabled these tiny birds to spend the winter in the north when there aren’t many flowers around. I had to use a fast shutter speed to freeze the wings but even at 1/3200 the wing tips are a little blurred. This female was at the Reifel Bird Sanctuary near Vancouver.
Taken with Nikon D500 and Nikkor 300mm f4 lens with a 1.4x converter at f5.6 ISO 2200 1/3200s
And here’s a male for comparison with a slower shutter speed at 1/1250s which has blurred the wings.
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