As summer winds down, we see a preponderance of young birds of all species. Many full grown young birds continue to follow the parents around squawking with mouths agape begging for a handout. Hummmm, we seem to have a whole segment of society just like that having been raised on government entitlement programs.
Not so with hummers. They are strictly on their own once taking flight and are even driven away from feeders by their parents! We now have a horde of young hummers out back. I've seen as many as six at once trying to feed from one port as I have the others plugged so I can semi "control" where they are when I shoot. If you let them control things, you'll never get anything. The juvenile birds are somewhat flat color wise as they have little iridescence.
The speckled throat mark this tiny guy as a juvenile male. He'll have the trademark flaming red gorget when he returns next spring. My guess is he's only 4-6 weeks old. As you can see, he' s pretty much devoid of the striking colors this species is famous for.
A prior pic of a juvenile male showing the speckled throat with two or three bright red feathers showing.
Forgot to turn on my main front flash unit (I'm and idiot) which gave a very underexposed but unusual shot
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