Photos of Lady Hand-Feeding Hummingbirds
Summary:Photographs currently circulating via email and online depict a woman hand-feeding hummingbirds (
Full commentary below).
Status:Images are genuine
Example:(Submitted November 2006)
Hand Feeding Hummingbirds
Something I have never seen before, nor ever even heard of. This lady lives in a Hummingbird fly zone. As they migrated, about 20 of them were in her yard. Just for a lark, she took the little red dish and filled it with sugar water and these are the results.
Commentary:
These wonderful photographs of a woman hand-feeding Hummingbirds have been rapidly circulating via email, blog, and forum posts since late September 2006. The images have generated a lot of discussion. Some commentators have postulated that the images were created using a graphics program such as Photoshop.
However, a quick Google search reveals that the images are indeed authentic. The photographs were taken in September 2006 by Mr Sam Alfano and depict Sam's wife Abigail Alfano feeding the hummingbirds in the yard of their Pine, Louisiana home.
Sam and Abigail have
published a web page that provides more information about the photographs and explains how they "escaped" into Cyberspace. Sam notes:
On September 20th, The Era Leader newspaper published the photos on the front page. We then emailed them to a few of our friends and had no idea they would quickly be forwarded around the world. Many of our friends have called or emailed us saying they were forwarded photos of a lady feeding hummingbirds, and it was Abigail! Had I known the photos would spread like wildfire, I would have put our names on them.
Abigail spent time standing close to their bird feeder over several days until the Hummingbirds grew accustomed to her being there and were game enough to land on her fingers. Abigail explains:
The morning the photos were taken, I simply went outside and filled the cap with the sugar water, placed it in the palm of my hand, and sat very very still. Within ten minutes, they were resting in my hands, drinking. It was sheer delight for me! I was even able to move my hands around a bit with the birds on my fingers. They are light as a feather...and simply beautiful. I can't wait until next year.
Sadly, one unscrupulous individual actually won a photo contest in Kentucky by submitting one of Sam and Abigail's hummingbird photographs as her own.
If you forward these photographs, please include information about their origin and a link to
Sam and Abigail's website so that the couple receive the credit they deserve for these beautiful photographs.
References:
The Hummingbird Lady Hand Feeding Hummingbirds
Last updated: 16th November 2006
First published: 16th November 2006
Write-up by Brett M.Christensen
