Hummingbirds often move too quickly for us to see. Slow motion video shows us what the birds are doing.
Hummingbirds – Slow Motion
This compilation shows 3 hummingbird slow motion video clips.
- a hummingbird hovering
- one hummingbird flying backwards while being chased by another, and
- a hummingbird stopping and turning in place in midair
One second in real life takes 10 seconds to watch. The video was recorded at 300 frames per second, but it plays back at 30 frames per second. The action in this 22 second video took about 2 seconds in real time.
Now we can better see how the birds move.
Real Time Versus Slow Motion – Hummingbird Flight
And how do hummingbirds in slow motion compare to what we see in real life?
While making Hover: Hummingbirds in the United States, we realized that we wanted to find out. So we recorded a hummingbird in slow motion video and in regular video at the same time.
These side-by-side videos show 1.5 seconds in real time of a Black-chinned Hummingbird visiting a feeder. The slow motion video takes 10 times longer to play back – 15 seconds to play back the exact same 1.5 second visit. Again, the real time videos were recorded at 30 frames per second. The slow motion videos were recorded at 300 frames per second. Both videos are played back at 30 frames per second.
These videos are from Hover: Hummingbirds in the United States, our interactive ebook made for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It includes many videos, slow motion video, and photos to show you the world of hummingbirds up close.
Videos on this page and the Hummingbird Pictures site were created by M.R. Mahar and T.A. Strich and are copyright protected. If you would like to use one (beyond the usual social media sharing), please contact us here.
Hover: Hummingbirds in the United States is made for the iPad, iPhone, or Mac. It is available on iTunes.