Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna)

Here's a bird I have seen and photographed many times without much success. Hummingbirds are a challenge to every photographer because they are so small, so agile and fast, and so beautifully colored. They are very charming birds and some fantastic photos have been taken of them. This is a male Anna's Hummingbird, the only hummingbird that overwinters around here. One of the problems I have when photographing this bird is that its brilliantly magenta colored head is so bright that it always overexposes when it catches the light. Here the bird is at enough of an angle so that only a bit of that brilliance shows. I posted a photo of some hummingbird chicks last year that were likely the progeny of this bird since he was guarding a territory within a stone's throw of their nest in Saxe Point Park.