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Meryl Lorenzo from Bayville, New York won second place in our 2021 Backyard and City Bird Photo Contest with this photo of a hungry hummingbird. The sharp, detailed look of the photo as a tiny ruby-throated hummingbird fed on a much smaller insect caught our judges’ attention.
“This photo was taken in my garden,” says Lorenzo. “We have 12 feeders, a few suet feeders and two hummingbird feeders. We also have three birdbaths – one of them heated during the winter months. After Hurricane Sandy destroyed my garden, I replanted with plants that hummingbirds would love. Unfortunately, some trees shade the flowers at certain times of the day, so you have to be patient so that the hummingbird and the sun are in the right place at the right time. The timing was perfect for this shot. I didn’t realize the bird was after this bug until I saw it on the computer.
Lorenzo used a Nikon D500 camera with a 300mm f4 lens. The settings were f/4, 1/1600s and ISO 2000. The photo was taken in August 2021. You can see more photos of Meryl on Instagram.
Many thanks to our panel of guest judges: author, radio host and editor Laura Erickson; our former editor Chuck Hagner, the director of Bird City Wisconsin; our former photo editor Ernie Mastroianni; Outdoor photographer Editor Wes Pitts; and William Brawley, Imagery Resources Editor.
See the first-place winner: the Blue Jays
See Third Place Winner: Carolina Wrens
See the finalists
Participate in our Birds in Flight 2022 competition
