Olive-backed Sunbird

Sunbirds do not stop by my bougainvillea tree very often. In fact it is very seldom that I see them and when I do, I only see them zipping through the branches at lightning speed. This time I heard this sunbird before I saw it, perched high above my overgrown bouganvillea. Perhaps that was why, at such a height it did not detect my presence and thinking that it was safe at such a lofty place, it surveyed its surroundings but forgot to look down.

Sunbird

I was not prepared when this small sunbird came to feed on the nectar of this flower that I was photographing.

A number of the shots had blurry images of this restless creature. My focusing was single point and I did not have time to bother about what aperture I had set.

Photographing birds is not a touch-and-go affair. One needs to lie in wait and train one's camera and lens at the position that a bird is likely to appear. One has to have the patience and stake out these creatures to get satisfactory shots.

I am not happy with these shots because the sharpness was less than desirable. Nevertheless these were good records of a chance encounter with this particular sunbird.

Crimson Sunbird

This highly active bird was chirping noisily amongst the Heliconia plants. The sun was in my eyes and that made photographing the subject difficult. There was not much time for fine adjustments especially so because I was using the Canon IXUS. The pictures were predictably not sharp. It was the encounter that mattered.

Sunbird encounter

You cannot get within 20 metres of these birds, so I have learned. Unfortunately I did not have a better camera with a good zoom lens. Still, I think these pictures are worth posting for they are snippets of the life of this very fast-moving and busy bird and it is not easy to capture them taking a refreshing sip of nectar from the flowers.

Crimson Sunbird

These two are my prized shots because I have never managed to photograph these birds well enough for them to be recognizable as they are such restless creatures and my cameras are those not in the league of professional photographers. Despite this technical shortcoming, I managed to keep cool and still, while waiting for my camera to get its autofocus right. I was all the time praying for this bird to stay for just a few more seconds and miraculously it did. So, never before seen on this blog, may I introduce the crimson sunbird, and a very well-fed one at that.

Photos taken at the Yuen Ping McNiece Bromeliad Garden in the grounds of the Singapore Orchid Garden.

Sunbird

These birds are small and swift and are too fast for me and my compact cameras. Usually when I hear them I just let them be. Sometimes I take it as a challenge to catch them still for just a second or so.

Olive-backed Sunbird

All it takes is one shot, one lucky shot. This picture was taken by my husband with an Olympus SP550UZ with an 18X zoom facility while I struggled with a Canon 40D with a standard lens with less than satisfactory results. The bird was never still for a moment flitting amongst the flowers of the jacaranda tree and we were both hoping for the best. Well, this is the one: