Broad-tailed hummingbird in hover

The magenta gorget only lights up at certain angles — from most positions it reads as nearly black, but catch the light right and it flares into iridescent color, as it does here. Broad-tailed hummingbirds are common at elevation across the Rockies and Great Basin, a different species from the ruby-throats back home in Virginia.

Why it matters

Male broad-tailed hummingbirds make a distinctive metallic trilling sound in flight, produced by air passing through modified wing feathers rather than vocally — it’s often how birders notice one is nearby before ever seeing it.

Getting the shot

A muted green background put all the attention on the bird, with the gorget’s color being almost entirely a function of the exact angle between the light, the feathers, and the lens — a few degrees either way and it would have gone dark.