This is one of the wonders of nature: a hummingbird. It's tiny. The male black-chinned hummingbird is just over 9cm long and has a wingspan of around 12cm. It is one of three hummingbird species which arrive in Alberta and British Columbia in the early summer, of which we had the good fortune to see two.
He approached close enough to be photographed because, at Buffalo Ranch, we sat at a picnic table which was right beside a fine lilac bush in full flower, and the hummingbird owned it - and was extremely irritated that we spent so much time so close to it.
One is made aware of their arrival by the buzzing of their wings, and sometimes it's quite difficult to spot them as they hover and dart around. They are true masters of the air, being able to move in every direction.
Masters they need to be. Both the species we saw migrate from Mexico each year, a distance of some 4,000km, and return in August.
If the black-chinned is small, this is even smaller, the smallest hummingbird in North America. The calliope hummingbird is only 8cm long and weighs around 2.5 to 2.8g.
This is the female - we never saw the male - and she was attracted to an old nectar feeder which we cleaned up and filled with a 1:4 mixture, by volume, of sugar and water.
I could have sat and watched these two little miracles for hours. As it was, lying in wait to take the pictures occupied a great deal of very well-spent and enjoyable time.
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