Behind the flight of the hummingbird

There are elements in nature that are fascinating to our eyes. However, capturing them in images is sometimes an uphill struggle. It is the case of the hummingbird's flight. A bird of fascinating beauty but with fast flapping wings that makes it impossible to photograph it if you do not have a professional camera. However, for a nature lover, there are no obstacles when it comes to treasure these experiences that nature offers us. Today I want to share some pics of a beautiful hummingbird I found on my walk through the forest.

Every time I walk through the forest and find flowering bushes, I know I will surely find some butterflies as they are seduced by the beautiful colors of the flowers. However, today I suddenly noticed fleeting flights of a small object around the bushes. At first, I thought it was a bee or a wasp, but as I approached carefully, I saw that it was a beautiful hummingbird.

These birds are very restless, flapping their wings so energetically that it is very difficult to keep up with them when it comes to photographing them. They are capable of moving their wings between 60 to 80 times per second, so capturing them in images requires specialized equipment.

I imagine that, like me, you may have wondered if these birds ever come to rest. Incredible as it may seem, they do sometimes perch on branches and rest for a while. I once had the opportunity to see a hummingbird perched on a branch, and as it rested, it would stick out its long tongue, licking the feathers around its eyes. I imagine it was a way of removing pollen from the flowers it had visited.

The hummingbird is a small and light bird, so it can fly in different directions. It can fly forward and suddenly slow down its flight and flap its wings and move backwards. Aerodynamically they are fabulous.

The hummingbird is a bird native to the America. Its earliest fossil records date back more than 22 million years in the Americas. It is not in vain that the hummingbird is a bird present in Mayan, Aztec and Guarani mythology. This bird is widely distributed in the American continent from the North of the United States to the Argentine Patagonia. However, recent discoveries have found that hummingbird ancestors existed in Europe more than 30 million years ago. German archaeologists found fossil remains where the bird's beak was slightly shorter. Why did they migrate to America? Perhaps the more stable climatic conditions were one of the reasons for their settlement in these lands.

There are over 300 species of hummingbirds. However, I am not sure of the exact classification of the hummingbird I found. I see it as a hummingbird with emerald green plumage on the head and part of the torso with an electric blue tail. However, the colors of its feathers depend on the reflection of sunlight on them, so it is a bit difficult to say precisely what kind of hummingbird it is. I leave that to the experts.

When I came across this hummingbird fluttering among the flowers, I instinctively took out my cell phone and started taking pictures, but this bird is so fast that the pics were blurry. So as not to miss the opportunity to record this bird in my gallery, I decided to record a video of it. Actually it was a short video of 10 seconds, enough time to capture this bird in all its splendor. Did I say enough? Yes, remember that the hummingbird can flap its wings an average of 80 times per second? Well this was crucial to get some images of this bird in full flight.

Since I wanted to get images of this bird, I resorted to the use of technology. If you have an Android device, just go to the Play Store and search for an app to extract images from a video. Once you download the app, when you open it, it takes you directly to your cell phone's video gallery.

---

Choose the video from which you want to extract the images. At the bottom of the screen you can click on the side arrows to go frame by frame selecting the image you are interested in. Once you have selected the image, you click the camera icon, and then a box appears indicating whether you want to download the selected image, share it, view it in detail or store it in your photo gallery by pressing OK.

These may not be high-quality photos, which motivates me to aim to buy a professional camera in the future. Nevertheless, I share with you some images of the flight of this wonderful bird as it enjoys the delicious nectar of the flowers.

The fast movement of this bird and its color, which makes it blend in among the leaves, make this bird get lost in front of our eyes for a few moments, but thanks to an app, I selected some pics to share.

I do not want to say goodbye without referring to an ancient Guarani legend (Paraguay). The ancient inhabitants of these distant lands in the south of the American continent said that "the hummingbird was a bird that led the souls of the deceased to paradise. They believed that when a person died, his soul would detach and hide among the flowers to avoid being trapped by evil spirits. Every time a hummingbird flies through the flowers, it picks up these souls, carrying them to their final destination."

---

Reference:

Molecular Phylogenetics and the Diversification of Hummingbirds

High proportion of smaller rangedhummingbird species coincides withecological specialization across theAmericas

Thanks for reading. See you in next post!
All images are property of the author
(Camera cell phone: POCO X3 Pro, Xiaomi)