Finding Colibrís

Michael Sedano

Huntington Library offers dozens of motherlodes of chuparrosas. The spectacular creatures flock to certain flowers scattered across the library's extensive grounds.

Finding hummingbirds to photograph depends on recognizing plants likely to attract the bird and being in the right place at the right time.  Failing the latter, the photographer stands or sits in place long enough to become a feature of the landscape. Before long---usually no more than fifteen minutes--the right time arrives; the little souls show up.

At first sight, a bird might swoop out of the horizon, circle its trove of nectar-filled flowers while eyeballing the photographer, not stopping to sip. A wary picaflor zips to a high perch where for minutes it preens and stretches, surveys the outlook before flitting down to feed at one or another spot in the bird's prospect from on high.

Some days the birds absent themselves and the photographer's minutes tick away in fruitless expectation. There are birds somewhere else. So many spots in this teeming garden multiplies one's frustration at planting oneself at an unvisited plant.

Asking a gardener where he or she has seen the birds this morning saves lots of time. Si hablas the gardener's brand of Spanish. Periphrasis around "esos pajaritos" is generally enough to elicit the gardener's own name for these jewels with feathers.

Aviso: La palabra picaflor no está en el Diccionario. 

Aviso: La palabra chuparrosa no está en el Diccionario. 

Aviso: La palabra hummingbird no está en el Diccionario. 

The RAE knows this one:

colibrí. ‘Pájaro americano de pequeño tamaño’. Su plural es colibríes o colibrís (→ plural, 1c).

 

Wouldn't you know it? Just a simple question, "How do you say that in Español?" generates controversy. Do ornithologists and orthographers spend nights in the gardens of Spain arguing colibríes versus colibrís? 

Órale, that's a moot argument when you go looking for them hoping to get a photograph. Sabes que? these small American birds go so fast, they drop the "e", these colibrís.

Gallery of Colibrís

Click on an image for a larger view

 

Two Views of A Lotus