I was excited to spot this Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) during a short visit yesterday to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens with some friends. The hummingbird was feeding on some distant orange jewelweed flowers (Impatiens capensis) and I was using a macro lens at that moment, so I was especially thrilled when I managed to capture this image.
I do not see hummingbirds very often, so it really is a treat for me to see one in action. It is absolutely mesmerizing to watch these little birds frenetically flying among the flowers, stopping from time to time to sip the nectar from one of them. Tracking the moving hummingbird was definitely a challenge with my 180mm macro lens. Strangely enough, though, I probably had an easier time in doing so with this lens than if I had been using my much longer telephoto zoom lens—it can be tough trying to track, focus, and zoom simultaneously when handholding a long lens.
This image is a significant crop of the original image, but the detail holds up fairly well, all things considered. Does equipment matter? It matters to some extent, but you can often get decent results by simply taking the shots with whatever camera and lens that you have at hand.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Very nice, Mike.
What a beautiful image! 😊 I enjoy watching hummingbirds too. I found an empty nest of a hummingbird this summer. They are quite small and very soft.
That’s cool. I have always wondered what the nest of a hummingbird looks like, but so far have not seen one.
Teacup nest and amazing birds. We have a feeder and often see 6-8 at a time. It is hard to count actual number because they fly so swiftly! Ours have not gone south yet, but they will depart soon. I was so glad to know we did not need to add red food color to the syrup. Once they found the feeder, they were on it constantly and even looked in the window if the feeder went empty. I do plant plants they love and have seen them on the flowers daily.