You look at this little hummingbird sitting on the tree branch and you think he is super calm. What you don't see is the wings are flapping. Too fast for the human eye but when you trigger the camera at the right moment it's there. He is flapping the wings all the time.
Not even thinking about that one photo he has wings the other not. The camera settings were absolutely the same. At 1/125th of a second, it's tricky to get the right moment. But which moment is the one you want?
With wings or without. Relaxed or action?
When in flight you would need to ramp and get into higher speeds. In-flight, they can flap 12 times per second in larger species and up to 80times per second in smaller ones. We could not count here. Way too fast for us.
But at least we would know which direction they would approach the friend's house.
In our opinion, this would be a Calliope hummingbird, which is one of the smallest native birds in the US and Canada. This one here can go up to 95 flaps per second during courtship display. Meaning if it wants to show off that its ready to mate. An adult calliope hummingbird can measure 7–10 cm (2.8–3.9 in) in length, span 11 cm (4.3 in) across the wings, and weigh 2 to 3 g (0.071 to 0.106 oz) source
This is tiny. Not sure if you would even feel the weight on your hand if it landed on it.
This bird was named after the Greek muse Calliope. The former genus name means "little star". In German it has a wonderful name as well, going by Sternelfe = Star Elf, we find it almost poetic.
Attracted by the hummingbird feeders sugar sirup we know what they wanted.
In credible little flyers that one can only adore and respect. Just got to love them.
