Camera: NIKON D2Hs

Shutter: 1/320 s

Aperture: f/4

Exposure Setting: Manual (Center-Weighted Average)

ISO: 800

Strobe Flash: Did Not Fire

Lens Focal Length: 700 mm

White Balance: Auto

Shooter's Comments:

A friend sent me an e-mail about a rufous hummingbird that has been in northwest Fort Wayne since October. I contacted the caregivers for the rufous and promised I won't publish their address or tell the exact location.

Rufous hummingbirds breed from the Pacific Northwest clear up into Alaska and winter in the Yucatan down in Mexico. This bird migrated east and was spotted around the end of October. This is not a bird one sees in the east and especially in the winter. This juvenile male rufous hummingbird must have gotten confused and traveled east instead of south.

Hummingbirds need protein to survive,so an extra feeder was put out with Nektar-Plus,a complete diet for hummers. On warm days the rufous catches fruit flies from a compost pile. A heat lamp is near the feeder in a protected area and the hummingbird often sits there

I've been told that the rufous hummingbird has become camera shy ever since a wildlife official put a band on its leg. I waited far away for quite a while before the hummer decided to chance it and come to the feeder. I was wearing a red coat, and the hummingbird spent a brief period of time looking at me and trying to figure me out.

I shot this with a 500 mm lens that also had a telephoto extender on it. A lens this size is rather heavy to hand hold, so I also used a monopod for support.

I focused the lens on the feeder and then waited twenty minutes in the snow and wind. Unlike the hummingbird, I was able to go inside and warm up after I go my shot.

- Cathie Rowand, Photojournalist