The hummingbirds in our backyard.

Pencil and watercolor on Pentalic Watercolor Journal 7" x 10"

There was confusion trying to identify the birds in the garden of our rental. Considering that we don't have binoculars, we think we were successful due to the fact that we identified 3 species of hummingbirds in the garden full of flowers, I found 32 flowers!

Of course, not all of them serve for feeding the hummingbirds. Their favorites are the two flowers on the top right of the group above, and the flower on the top left of the group below.

Everything started when we listened to the chirping. That was the first time we noticed a hummingbird was in our backyard.  Please notice we thought there was only one at that time. After several days we got used to that sound but then we started to observe. For some reason I wanted to identify it and that is when all the confusion and frustration at times started.  I'm not a bird watcher but I was curious. "It's a red peak, no it's black; it's black with green, no it's blue and green. It has a big white spot in the head, not it's small, no it doesn't have one at all". We went through all the "it's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman"

One morning, out the window, the smallest of all was feeding in flight just 3 feet from me. There, suspended in the air, I was in first row mesmerized by it's beauty. It was the blue throated golden tail also call blue throated sapphire. Small, no white spot on the head, golden tail, red peak and a black spot just in the tip. Eureka!

Another day, from the distance I could see the large white spot in the head, a mark hard to miss, blue-green plumage and also a red peak with a black tip, only the black tip goes almost half way of the peak. It was the white eared hummingbird. A small one but larger that the goldentail. Eureka!

Finally, this one was the last and hardest to identify. Just 2 days ago, I saw one of the small hummingbirds feeding when suddenly a large hummingbird came to chase it away. It was a hummingbird with a long black peak, almost black plumage with a small white dot behind the eye. I remember I saw this black peak hummingbird before but it had green and blue shades in the head! Well it turned out that this hummingbird is the Rivoli's or Magnificent hummingbird, and sometimes it flashes the feathers of the crown and the throat showing off it's iridescent blue and teal colors respectively. Eureka.... damn bird.

Yeah, the story doesn't finish here yet, sorry. I have nick names for them, after so many days of effort, they deserve it.

Mr. T
a.k.a. Mr. Territorial "I'm aggressive, don't mess with my food"

Mr. F
a.k.a Mr. Fearless. "I don't give a damn about Mr. T and I also feed in his territory"

Mr. S.
a.k.a. Mr. Shy. "I'm the smallest and I'm afraid of the pair above, but also I'm the most beautiful and that makes me happy"

I sketched the hummingbirds from photos online. I also made an experiment mixing pearl (metallic) watercolor with other colors to try to reproduce the flashy plumage, did I succeed? I offer an apology if any ornithologist or serious birdwatchers are reading this post. The colors might no be exact but were illustrated to note the differences among these birds.

And this is how the humans and birds in this property coexist in the beautiful town of San Cristobal de las Casas.

Click here for the next post about Chiapas.