Rufous Hummingbird Male

Day 201: Days. And patience. Hours and hours of standing on the back porch, leaned up against the door, back aching, arms going to sleep because you've been holding the camera up for so long trained on the hummer feeder and your finger on the shutter button. Females come and go by the dozen, hovering, sparring, chasing, perching, posing as cutely as any photographer might want, but your files are full of female hummers in cute poses. You want that male, the guy with the beautiful rusty back and that bright red throat. He buzzes in from time to time, always dines at the port on the back side of the feeder so all you see are his wings fluttering and occasionally a watchful eye peeking around the side of the jar. "You still there?" he seems to say. "You're not going to get my picture today. You might as well give up." So you stand: freezing, cold, damp, aching, and you wait because you know this takes time and patience and an awful lot of sugar water. And then he comes to dinner when the light is low, dines at his leisure while you fire off shots which all prove to be too grainy in the end. The next day, you wait and watch in the cold, leaning up against the back door with an aching back and cramping arms. You wait a few hours, or so it seems, and after many tentative approaches, your waiting is finally rewarded as he perches. The light is right to catch his beautiful red throat and his rusty back. At last, Selasphorus Rufus (male) is in the photographic bag! Look at the cagy gleam in that eye!