Christie, that's a fabulous photo. They are so hard to catch with the camera. They do get very tame. We can sit on the porch near the feeder and they still come.

Christie, your hummingbird picture is wonderful! My hummingbirds do not eat together, because they fight alot. I love to sit on the porch and watch them eat.

very nice photo.

william

Great photo Christie.
we like to watch them also. By we I mean the grandchildren and myself.
Do you always get that many every year?
Bonnie

Do you think the new ones are offspring just big enough to come to the feeders? I sometimes find their tiny nests in the winter when the foliage is off the shrubs.

Great photo! I've never been able to capture one of those either. My hummingbirds never seem to get tame. The females are more friendly and will come to the feeder if I sit very still but the males won't come around if anyone is outside.

Very cool pic christie...its neat to capture a moment like that.

I think the most I'd ever seen at one time was four until this summer. Now I almost always have six to eight going to my feeders. I'm sure I must have a few going to my flowers at the same time as well.

A few years ago I had one that would let me get close but this is the first year since then that I've been able to sit on the porch and watch them go to the feeders. We could watch them through the window before but it's more fun to be on the porch where we can hear them buzzing around.
Some of them are babies that were born this year. I've seen a couple that have a tiny red dot on their throat. I think those are immature males.
Hope they find their way back to my yard next spring.

What kind of camera do you have and what setting do you put it on to get your closeups? I put mine on auto and when I see green I take a picture. Are you doing something special?

Helen - My camera's on auto most of the time too. I've never used some of the special features that it has. I do use the zoom feature, which I used for the hummingbird photo. If I get too close and try to zoom, it won't focus. On my camera, I zoom in closer, push the button down half-way to set the focus and then push it down all the way to take the picture. If it doesn't look focused on the screen before I click, I know that I've tried to get too close.

If I can get only a few inches away from my subject, I can switch my camera to macro, while the other settings are still on automatic, and I use that for taking a photo of something small.
For the monarch photo below, I didn't zoom in. I just held the camera very close (about three or four inches away) and used the macro feature.

It wasn't moving so that helped. lol

If I try to take a picture of a hummingbird with my zoom lens when it's moving its wings, it's pretty blurry. I think I may be able to use the manual settings on it to adjust the shutter speed but I don't know how to do that. lol

I have a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H3 that I just bought this year for around $320. It has a 10X Optical zoom and 8.1mp. I bought a Panasonic Lumix before Christmas and returned it because the pictures weren't good at all.
I don't see the same model that I got on Best Buy's website so maybe they've updated it already. The one below is very similar and is $279 on sale. That seems to be the way it goes with digital cameras. The prices keep getting lower.

Here is a link that might be useful: Best Buy Sony Cybershot