At this very moment, here in the Wind River Canyon, we are up to our cowboy hats in Baby Hummingbirds.  With four species breeding in this canyon, it's a great mind-game to try and figure just which hummingbird you're looking at, and what gender.  Sometimes only mere seconds is all we have for some type of identification, and this is with eight buzzing around one nectar feeder at six in the morning!  To be perfectly honest it's usually "Mission Impossible."  

     Okay, you pick the video, but when I tell you that nothing beats a photograph to study, it helps.  I've been shooting Hummingbird Portraits a lot recently, and that will hopefully be the subject of next week's blog.  This week I wanted to post a small and intimate video of a Baby Hummingbird.

     This little guy (yes, it's a young male) is fearless, and fighting all who try to have breakfast at his feeder.  He was born here in the canyon, and needs to fatten up for his trip to the vast, isolated mountains of central Mexico later in the month.  But he's not alone in this task of his, he has many other competitors.  Some are larger adults that you think could best him in battle, but they cannot.

     This particular Baby Hummingbird is a Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) and he's cold.  It's just less than sixty degrees this early morning; this was shot yesterday.  He will mature into a tiger-colored, little beast that will always be top-dog, er, hummingbird.  Rufous are a strong and dominant little bird.  He is less than four inches from the top of his green head to his white-tipped tail feathers.  If you stick out your thumb....that's how big he is; assuming you have a normal sized thumb.  Yet, he fears nothing, not even me and my camera and tripod.

     When I saw him outside my bedroom window, I ran out to take pictures of this Baby Rufous Hummingbird.  I was only six feet away and shot dozens of digital files, when I realized I should at least try and shoot some video of him.  I ran inside and grabbed the beastly tripod, and set it in the same spot; he had no trouble with any of my manic activity.  The light is dim in the morning here in the canyon, but all things considered, he's a cute little hummingbird that will return to the Wind River Canyon for many years to come.   Baby Rufous Hummingbird Video - Wind River Canyon, WyomingVideo of a Baby Rufous Hummingbird in the Wind River Canyon in the state of Wyoming.      The equipment was----Canon 7D with grip, a Canon 300mm f/4L IS lens, and an old, heavy Giottos tripod, with a Calumet Pro-D ball head that just replaced the monster I smashed chasing Bighorn Sheep.  Thank goodness for that store in the jungle!  And they ship to the middle-of-nowhere....the Wind River Canyon.  The memory card was a Lexar 1066x, and in ten years I've never had a failure with that brand.  

     I'm always astonished at how close I can get to these small, wild little birds.  They are to me the most fascinating part of nature, and I've dedicated the last sixteen years to them.  The Hummingbirds of the Wind River Canyon will be leaving soon (the older males are already preparing) and I will miss them....but they'll be back next year, because they know I will be waiting for them----with a smile on my face.

Writing of this nature blog, and all videography and photography, and all computer post-production work----by Michael John Balog, resident of the Wind River Canyon.

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Thank you for your time spent with me in this magical canyon.