When I first saw rare hummingbird pictures, I not only wanted to know what species they were but I also wanted to know where I could find them.Most exotic hummingbirds are found in South America and more than 50 species are identified and documented with pictures but there are more than 100 species in South America.

If you want to find rare hummingbirds in North America,you have to go to South East Arizona. I specifically mentioned South East Arizona, because that's where you can find rare hummingbirds during spring and fall hummingbird migrations. Huachuca Mountain is the hummingbird highway during migration periods and you can find rare species such as white eared hummingbird , berylline hummingbird, violet crowned hummingbird and lucifer hummingbird. Unlike broad billed hummingbird that is quite common hummingbird in Arizona, you have to go to a specific spot to find one of these rare hummingbirds.

Finding and seeing rare hummingbirds is one thing and taking a good photo of these hummingbirds is quite a challenge. Not only you need right gears to capture beautiful rare hummingbird pictures but also you need some luck. I learned this from the day one when I first tried to get one of those hummingbird pictures. Because you never know when they will show up and when they show up you'd better be ready to shoot. Hummingbirds are most active early in the morning and before dusk. They need to get on feeding in the morning to recharge their energy for the day and they need enough foods before dusk to go through the night. That doesn't mean you won't find them during the day but their activities are less active.

But when one of those rare hummingbirds finally showed up after a long wait, it's hard to describe the excitement I experienced. You get excited but you really have to control your excitement because any sudden move would scare off this tiny beauty. It's a very concentrated moment and your camera and your eye would become one and you would chase this tiny rare hummingbird in your camera's view finder. I would say that seeing the hummingbird in the view finder would give you an intimate experience with the bird. They may give you 10 seconds,30 seconds or even longer time to shoot and you don't always get a good look so patience is a must and it eventually will pay off. And each time I got some shots, the first word coming out from my mouth was "whew!" And I took a deep breath ,realizing that I had quite an intense moments. I remember that I would sit 8 hours a day just to wait for a perfect timing to shoot. A hard labor paid off but my butt hurt quite a bit.