This male broadtail hummingbird spread his wings several times before flying away. He was probably showing another hummingbird he was prepared to defend his territory.

 The birds often perch on a dead twig where they have an almost 360 degree view to watch over the wildflowers and feeders. The males seem to spend more time chasing rivals away than they do feeding on the flowers they so jealously guard.

Though the images could have been cropped more for this post, I wanted to include a few of the spring-green aspen leaves in the images above.

Below is a both a closer crop of the bird and the full image:

The bird is a very small part of the full image at the distance (perhaps 40 feet) I was working with the 100 to 400 telephoto fully extended to 400mm. Taking a photo of something the size of my thumb from that distance is ok when I’m just cropping for web images, but there just aren’t enough pixels in the bird to make a big print. I usually photograph when the birds are closer.

Windy weather has limited my outdoor flash work recently. (See previous post.) The flash extender acts as a sail in the wind. More to come on lighting up the hummingbirds when I have more to show and write.