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Rhynchokinesis
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Rhynchokinesis

by Dennis Plank

Gallery: AvianPosted December 21, 2016160 views4 comments
I was going back through old images and I had taken a very large number of hummingbird images on May 22nd.  Since that's a hot time for photography, I'd just done a superficial cull at the time.  Going back through them, I found this one.  I've seen Hummingbirds with their beaks open and with just the end opened, but this is the first time I've seen with the proximal end of the beak open and the distal end closed (you have to view the large image to see it well).  Given the images around it, this was probably part of a threat display to another hummingbird.

7DII, Sigma 150-600 C @ 600mm, f/9, 1/200, iso 640, aperture priority, pattern metering, -1/3 EV.  Processed in LR5 & CS6.  Cropped to 10.8 MP before resizing.  Taken at 7:51 AM on May 22nd, 2016.

Comments and criticisms are always appreciated.

Thanks,

Comments

4 comments
Comment posted by Marc Dubuc on December 21, 2016 at 10:46 PM
Excellent shot and nice BG. Great observation about the beak.
Registered on January 4, 2011, 59 Posts, 229 Comments
Comment posted by Ken Watkins on December 22, 2016 at 5:37 AM
Dennis,
Who would have thought they had a word for it?
Great image
Registered on December 15, 2010, 1537 Posts, 4877 Comments
Comment posted by David Schoen on December 22, 2016 at 4:05 PM
Perhaps they are able to do this so they can eat bugs?  Someone, perhaps Keith or Nate, posted a picture of a hummingbird eating bugs sometime in 2016.  But perhaps you are correct in that it is a defensive measure.  Interesting photograph on what looks like a typical Washington day without sun.
Registered on November 6, 2006, 1213 Posts, 4587 Comments
Comment posted by Jerry Austin on December 23, 2016 at 9:31 AM
The large image is especially nice. Great detail on this guy.
Registered on January 6, 2012, 651 Posts, 3448 Comments