Guy Witney Krocker: Hummingbirds et al, Folha Seca

Just north of Ubatuba lies the property of Mr. Jonas Dabronzo. Kind and gracious, he welcomes birders and visitors with open arms. He maintains at least a dozen large hummingbird feeders as well as a couple of banana feeding stations for other birds. This is where I will spend most my time while staying in Ubatuba.
Hummingbird photography is very difficult if you want to avoid shots of them perched at feeders. In general they are fairly predictable in terms of foraging behavior, they follow regular routes and most often will hold nearby for a moment either by hovering or perching on a branch in order to assess the food source prior to feeding. I call this behavior staging and most birds do it, especially at feeders, the difference being hummingbirds have the ability to hover. Enter the challenge of hummingbird photographers. Find the birds staging spot, often it is within a 25-50 cm radius, pre-focus on that location and when they arrive try to micro adjust for location/centering/focus and get the shot off before they fly down to the feeder or get chased away by another bird.
I have been averaging 500 shots a day and I think I may have a dozen reasonable shots. Prior to digital photography I could never afford this pastime. In the film days I was relegated to feeders and tree perching pictures.
What follows are a sample from day one - getting used to my new camera and lens and readjusted to the challenges of a hummingbird photographer.