September 5 is National Hummingbird Day. Hummingbirds are some of my very favorite birds. These aerial specialists can hover in place and fly backwards! I look forward to the two times of year when the hummingbirds migrate to their home for the season. Right now, they are migrating south to their warmer winter homes in Mexico and Central America. It is so much fun to watch them flit across the quiet wild, dive bombing each other! But that makes them very difficult to photograph. I am definitely an amateur photographer, and trying to photograph hummingbirds really sends that message home to me! Below are some images I took of the hummingbirds that are visiting the yard right now. I hope you will excuse those that are a little blurry!

They really like the window feeder on the office window and visit often to take a sip.

The colors on the neck of this hummingbird are beautifully iridescent. The colors seem to change in the light.

This hummingbird sat on the shepherd’s crook for quite a while, resting between bouts with the other hummingbirds.

Hummingbirds can flap their wings dozens of times per second, which makes lots of hummingbird pictures blurry!

If you are interested in learning more about hummingbirds and how they fly, I have provided the URL to an article in Birds and Blooms for your reading. I hope you take a moment to celebrate these tiny creatures and learn a little more about their visits to the quiet wild and your backyard. Consider putting out a feeder for them as they make their migration!