It’s no secret humming birds beat their wings fast, but it’s also nice to catch one in the act.

I snapped this Allen’s Hummingbird (Selaphorus sasin) yesterday at a shutter speed of 1/800th second (0.00125 s) and his wings are still a blur.

Humming birds can beat their wings at up to 200 beats per second – the wing completing its travel in 0.005 s.  I reckon the blurred area above represents about a quarter of a full beat, which is just what we’d expect if this guy were flapping near the max. (i.e. 4 x 0.00125 = 0.005).

Look how the body stays almost perfectly still; it reminds me of those stories about being able to balance a coin on the bonnet of a Rolls-Royce.  There is a slight wobble: if you compare his head to his foot (and the pictures below where he’s settled down) the head shows a slight shimmer.

With the sun catching him like that, we’re also getting a good demonstration of the iridescent color effects humming birds exhibit due to interference of light within the microstructure of their feathers.

Here are a few more pictures of the same bird: