Hummingbird Hover
Out on the porch with a camera, first thing. He holds in the air a second or two, turning where he hangs — head-on one moment, broadside the next — then he is somewhere else entirely. Take the picture while he hovers.
📱 Turn your phone sideways — the field takes the whole screen, and the birds get a lot bigger.
- Click or tap a hummingbird to photograph him. You have six frames before the camera writes to the card, so pick your moment.
- He hovers, then darts — gone in a blink and hanging still again somewhere else. A frame taken while he is moving comes out a blur, and a blurred frame is spent all the same.
- While he hovers he turns. Broadside he is a wide, easy target; the moment he comes round to face you he is a sliver — and a head-on portrait pays double.
- The small ones are worth the most: the Ruby-throat pays 5, the Black-chinned 10, the Rufous 20, and the tiny Calliope 40.
- Twice a round two birds come through in a chase — they are territorial, and they will not share a feeder. Catch both in one frame for 100. Miss the pair and the one left behind is still worth 25 before he clears the yard.
- Ninety seconds, and no reason to hurry. Nobody is harmed and nothing is kept — the flash startles him, he goes, and you are left with the picture.
- 🎯 Premium members get five more kinds of light to shoot in — and get the game a fortnight before everyone else.
Who comes to the feeder
Pick your light
Shutter sound
Tap one to hear it.
Ruby-throated, Black-chinned, Rufous and Calliope are all real birds you might see at a feeder, and they are drawn roughly to their real sizes — the Calliope really is that much smaller. They feed hardest in the hour just after sunrise, which is why the game opens at Sun Up. The bright throat is a gorget, and in all four of these it belongs to the male — females are plainer and far harder to tell apart, so these are all males.
