Hummingbirds in the mist

This may border on sacrilege, but I think that Resplendent Quetzal is only the 2nd coolest bird at Paraiso Quetzal.  Their hummingbird feeders attract the first, at some times of the year clouds of them, this time only one (most are sitting on nest).  The bird? Fiery-throated Hummingbird.

 In a lot of lighting situations they look all dark, blackish.  But they have a pretty full rainbow iridescence if you catch them just right...

 

Last year there were probably a hundred Fiery-throateds, but fortunately the one remaining bird was fairly pugnacious and chased away as many of the Magnificents and Green Violet-ears as it could.  The female Magnificents' enormous bill gave it some pause though

("Hmmmm.  Yours is bigger than mine")

The Magnificent hummingbirds were also pretty impressive in the right light.

The Magnificents more than others frequently would collect a decent amount of pollen and sometimes even look yellowish.

 

Same with this Violet-ear.

If you really want to blow through shutter exposures try shooting flying hummingbirds.

The indirect lighting in the mistiness made it easier to keep the exposures even and not have some sections of the bird blown out and others too dark, but made it harder to shoot moving birds.  A little bit of sun helped increase the shutter speed on the Magnificent.  It was back a lot slower for the Fiery-throat though.