Brewmaniac

I just got this from a friend and she doesn't know the origin, extremely cool nonetheless!

This is something I have never seen before, nor ever even heard of. This lady lives in a Hummingbird fly zone. As they migrated, about 20 of them were in her yard. Just for a lark, she took the little red dish and filled it with sugar water and these are the results.







Any cool creatures in your neck of the woods? Tell us, and post pictures.

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Ch'i

I'm not sure why, but those look photoshopped.

blahblah454

They could look that way perhaps because the hand is so still while the birds are moving so fast, their wings anyways. I have always found humminbirds to be amazingly beautiful and that would be a very neat experience. I live in Alberta and there are no cool creatures here. We have deer, rabbits and coyotees everywhere though so if you think those are cool we got em everywhere.

highthief

Little Ruby Throated Hummingbirds - common in much of North America in summer.

Many bird species are pretty tame - chickadees, jays, woodpeckers will all eat out of your hand often enough in the wild. First I heard of Hummers doing so, but I wouldn't be surprised.

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Craven Morehead

That would be a phenomenal experience. Very cool pictures.

flstf

My wife puts out a sugar water feeder every Spring on our back deck and we are visited by dozens every day until the late Summer early Fall. The little devils are fun to watch sometimes dive bombing each other to claim their territory and even dive bombing us when we get too close.

These little guys are amazing migrating all the way from Canada to Central America. Some of them take a direct route over the Gulf of Mexico flying over 500 miles non-stop.

Elphaba

It doesn't look natural to me either. Our hummers do not gather together like that when there is a source of food. They are not big on "sharing".

Any photoshop experts here?

Intense1

My mom put out a hummingbird feeder for years, but they always were very "flighty" (no pun intended) whenever she went outside. But perhaps our type of h-birds are more wild than the ones in the pictures are. What state are these h-birds in, if you don't mind me asking?

But great pictures, if they're real. H-birds are fun to watch, the little pickers...

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flstf

If these photos are for real, I can only guess that she lives on one of their migrating paths and they are very exhausted and need some energy enough to drop their natural territorial defenses and go for the first source they find.

Ch'i

Its not that the hummingbirds are there, its that they look out of place. There's an unnatural quality to the pictures.

pocon1

Would the really high rate of film speed needed to capture the wings in flight have something to do with the look of the pictures?

Brewmaniac

I believe they are real, as stated in the OP, they are in a migrating Hummingbird fly zone. The wings flapping are somewhat blurred but I think that's normal.

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raeanna74

I believe they're real. The hummingbirds near my mom's house got used to us being around and would come to the feeder even AS we were putting one up with fresh sugarwater. They'd come to the hollyhock while we were right there in the garden. I can see them coming in a group like that. Also - I've seen them dive at one another but before a storm they are willing to feed near each other. Also if they were migrating there wouldn't be the instinct to be territorial as much. I've heard of this before often enough that I don't doubt the validity of the pictures. Pretty cool.

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Lady Sage

Real or not the pictures are breathtaking in quality. Thank you for sharing

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treewoods

those pictures evoke a certain feeling in me....photoshop?
Just kidding....cool pics

Brewmaniac

In southern Michigan we get loads at our feeder and at the flowering plants on and around our deck, they are very curious creatures, i've had them fly right in front of me a look right at me. As far as the pictures go I don't know for sure.

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Baraka_Guru

As someone who has worked for a few years in a photo lab, I'm leaning towards the opinions of the Photoshop camp. Check out these inconsistencies: the variance in light quality between the woman (soft) and the birds (bright) in the second photo and the inconsistent shadow under the tail of the bird in the foreground of the first and last photo. Also, it looks like a bad edit job on the top edge of the woman's hand in the first photo, where the bird in the back is flying... that "shadow" looks more like a bruise.

Ultimately, the lighting quality is what threw me off at first.


But cools photos, fake or not.

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Randerolf

I loved watching the humming birds feed when I was in upstate New York, but noticed that they are greedy, nectar guzzeling machines what would attack any other birds that came close to the feeder. I've never have I seen one perch nor have I seen them gather 'round like that.

Sweetpea

well, that is just amazing gave me a smile.

sweetpea

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ngdawg

It's outside and if the camera is focused on the birds, the woman would be just slightly off, depending on the aperature. I don't think that's a shadow in the first picture, I think it's the indentation of her knuckle and could very well be a bruise, but it's definitely not a shadow or even a try at one(a try at one would be more pronounced).
The shadows of the tails are fine; the one is blended into the folds of her hand, so it's not going to look like the other.
Photoshopping the delicateness of the beating wings into a pic, retaining the original comp of the background while keeping the outlines of such translucency unapparent would not be impossible, but it would be very obvious and not worth doing. Finally, the size of the birds and the perspective is correct and consistent. Seperately, these things might not make a difference, but together, I'd have to say the pics are genuine.

We only sometimes get hummingbirds here near the end of summer. My abelia bushes attrack them and a lot of butterflies. Unfortunately, I didn't see any hummingbirds this year. They're so cool to watch.

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BadNick

They are such cool little birds. This past mid-August my family was sitting in our idling car in front of our house ready to drive off to vacation; I ran back to close the garage door and as I walked down the driveway a hummingbird came within inches of my head, then buzzed around me for half a minute or more ...I thought that if I held out some sweet drink it would come over, but I've never done that.

warrrreagl

Whenever I've seen two or more hummingbirds in the vicinity of our feeders, they're always trying to slaughter each other.

And a slightly related tidbit of trivia - bluebirds will flat out kick your ass if you get near their nests. They don't play around. I love it when some goof puts out bluebird houses and then tries to stick his head near the hole to see if any are in there. It doesn't take long to find out.

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Jinn

My parents' house has four hummingbird feeders, servicing 10 more at a time. They're awesome little birds - especially their little chirps and the sound of their wings.

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Fly

fuckin' awesome.........haven't seen our two this year.......they were here last year.

is that odd that we had them one year and not the next?

and yes we have a feeder.

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newtx

My parents have 2 feeders on their deck. I counted as many as 12 within a few feet of the deck. Great photos.

StanT

I took the following picture a few years ago. While shooting, one of them actually landed on the camera, they have no fear of people.




Note the extremely small depth of field. I am focused on the body and both wings are slightly blurred. This is a result of an very fast shutter speed and fairly large aperture. The pictures above look real to me. Having them land on a person is certainly plausable. There are times of the year when wearing bright colore is an invitation to being buzzed around my house.

Eweser

My dad loves feeding hummingbirds. He has three feeders out all summer long. One time this summer, they ran out. He and I were sitting outside and one of these guys buzzed up by his head, hovered there for a sec looking at him like "Dude! You're out of food!" and then flew away. It was too cool.

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AbigailAlfano

Hi.
I am Abigail Alfano, the women in the hummingbird photos. My husband, Sam Alfano took the photos. They are real, not photo shopped. The only editing done was some simple cropping and a little brightness and contrast tweaking.
I found this forum and many others by doing a google search for 'hummingbird fly zone'.
When we took these pictures in September, we sent them to our local newspaper THE ERA LEADER (in Franklinton Louisiana) and they were featured on the front page. We then sent them to several of our friends via email, and they have spread like wild fire!
Many of the forums are questioning their authenticity, which I suppose is understandable because it was truly an amazing experience. Next year when they come back, we will shoot video as well.
David Emery from the website http://urbanlegends.about.com contacted us to get 'the story'. He did his research and did deem them authentic. You can go to his site to read the story.
Also, I have posted the photos on my personal website, www.AbigailSings.com/hummingbirds I hope you will visit this site. I'd love to hear from anyone with questions or comments. I cannot believe how fast these photos have spread all over the world. We should have put our names on the photos and perhaps contact information. We'll know next time!
Thank You all for your interest.
Abigail Alfano

Kali

They are beautiful photos. I believe, at their feeding time, one could do exactly what she's doing.

Don't they kinda look like something is missing on their bodies?

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Brewmaniac

Abigail Alfano, how cool is this, the internet brings strangers from all over the world together to share thoughts, common interests or amazing events in our lives.

These pictures are unbelievable, thank you for posting them on the internet, they showed up in my inbox and I had share them with my good friends here.

If you send your link to your local PBS station maybe next year they could capture them on film and they could be shared with the rest of the world!

I hope you poke around here and find topics that interest you. There are loads of bright, artistic, and articulate people from every walk of life from all over the globe

Welcome and Good luck,

Brew, aka:Jack

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maleficent

now that's very cool...

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AbigailAlfano

Hi Guys! This is the hummingbird lady, here.
Thank you for your nice comments. Ain't the internet cool! :-)
I recieved an email from a lady in Kentucky that told me another lady sent one of my photos in to the Lexington Television station WTVQ and claimed that she was the lady in the photo. (She sent one of just my hand and the birds) and she WON A PHOTO CONTEST! Can you believe that?!? I wrote the television station and provided enough information and additional photographs to prove they were my photos. He promptly wrote me back a very nice letter and apologized. Ofcourse, I didn't hold it against him or the station. They had no idea the lady lied to them. I just wanted them to know the truth. I just am saddened that someone would do this.
On a happy note, this seems like a really nice forum. I'm glad I stopped by and joined.
CHEERS EVERYONE!
Abigail

NCB

Great pics made even cooler by the model coming here and telling us the story. Awesome!

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_God_

Very cool! We have three hummingbird feeders. The little devils are territorial, all right, and they always finish the nectar in one before starting the next. They frequently perch on the feeders.

None have ever seemed in the least interested in letting us approach them. In fact, as warreagl said, they will act as menacing as possible if you get near a nest.

The noise they make in flight is a little like a bumblebee's--it sounds a little threatening as well.

And no, I'm not afraid of them.