Everyone loves Hummingbirds and for good reason, but I don’t think many people know how territorial they are and how mean they can be, especially around food sources. At bird feeders, there are often clashes of Hummingbirds as they fight for their food.

As my new best friend, Elias, and I were taking photographs of Hummingbirds at some feeders in Ecuador I mentioned to him that it would be cool to get a shot of the Hummingbirds clashing while in flight. He looked at me like I was crazy. I took that as a challenge and moments later I showed him this photo. He had nothing to say, but his silence was the best outcome.

These are both Peruvian Racket Tail. The one on the right is an adult male and the one on the left is a female. These Hummingbirds feature little booties above their feet. You can see that the female has little booties too but they are just not as defined as the male’s.

BAM☺︎