We don’t know who created the various words for groups of animals. Some group names are just generic: a herd of deer, a flock of geese. But some are quite appropriate. Maybe none more so than a glittering of hummingbirds.

Here’s a selection from our files that proves a group of these tiny birds are truly a glittering.

Rufous hummingbird and showy milkweed. Oregon

Purple-throated mountain-gem (male). Costa Rica

Purple-throated mountain-gem (female). Costa Rica

We hope you enjoyed this small bouquet (also a word for a group of hummers.) If you wish to see any of these images larger, you can click on the image for a larger pop-up version.

A technical note: You will notice many of these images are from Costa Rica. The cloud forest there has a variety of birds that are spectacular. These Costa Rica images were captured in 2012. Since then processing techniques have improved dramatically allowing more of the full potential of the digital image to come through. This allows us to present images we thought were disappointing, in a manner more true to the light in which we originally saw them.

This freshly polished group of hummers, from Costa Rica, as well as the western US, are, we think, a truly glittering group.

Journal

A Glittering