To me, these photos speak to a pretty deep part of my approach to being a birding and hummingbird enthusiast.
We all love going out into the field, hearing unfamiliar calls, spotting something unexpected and getting those chance-encounter photos. But there’s also something incredibly intimate about having such a magnificent little creature trust your presence while it sits six inches from your face on the other side of a kitchen window.

There’s an exchange that happens when you care enough to provide a little nutrition and, in return, get these almost ethereal experiences. Catching your first flash of an iridescent gorget. Freezing wing motion for the first time. Having a hummingbird buzz inches past your head while you’re changing a feeder. Eventually, all of those moments start to feel less like isolated encounters and more like a relationship.

You’re not their shepherd or their caregiver. At best, you’re a caloric subsidizer. 😂 But you still get the privilege of being a very close observer of something wild.

That’s what these photos represent to me. The childlike wonder I still feel taking pictures of hummingbirds. Because at its absolute simplest, keeping feeders is just putting sugar water outside for tiny winged things with long beaks.

And somehow, even reduced to that, it is still completely magical.

The first hummingbird I have ever attracted. She came to me during such a lonely summer - and made it so bright.

I looked forward to seeing her every single day. I sat outside every day for the past month, watching her. I do believe we had a special bond.

Yesterday morning, I was busy in the kitchen when I hear squeaking. I look out and there she is. I go to my kitchen window to say hi. She was so vocal.

She drank for quite awhile and then flew off. Something in me told me that might've been our goodbye. She was never that vocal before.

It has now been over 24 hours and I haven't seen her. I cried when I realized that was it.

It feels so silly to be attached to a wild animal, but for so long I tried so hard to attract a hummingbird. And I finally did. She was so special. I hope she will have safe travels down south and hope we will reunite in spring 😢

But now I’m finding myself getting sad and depressed that there leaving. I never realized how much joy they brought to my life.

The juvenile males have taken over my feeders. I guess it’s bulking time before their first big flight. Gosh I’m gonna miss these feisty buggers 🥲

KY

Here is a collection of ones that visited us this year.

We have 6 flying around today all lady birds I do believe as they are moving. The little birds are fun to watch..

Fattest hummingbird I've ever seen at my feeder. At first I thought it was some other bird species.

Female black chinned I believe taking a long drink against stormy background

I can only find stuff on boiling first.

I use distilled for my tea. I don't like the grey scale that comes from boiling sink water. I also feel like it tastes better, if a lot dryer.

Is there any way to report a mis-identification? I'm sitting here 5 feet from the rufous singing his little heart out and Merlin is telling me it's a house finch.