Summer Magic

by Darren Fisher

Title

Summer Magic

Artist

Darren Fisher

Medium

Photograph - Photography/ Digital Art

Description

A Ruby Red Throat hummingbird flying up to a beautiful red Poppy. The image has effects and a texture added to the photo so it would look like a painting.
Hummingbirds have many skeletal and flight muscle adaptations which allow the bird great agility in flight. Muscles make up 25-30% of their body weight, and they have long, blade-like wings that, unlike the wings of other birds, connect to the body only from the shoulder joint. This adaptation allows the wing to rotate almost 180�, enabling the bird to fly not only forward but fly backwards, and to hover in front of flowers as it feeds on nectar, or hovers mid-air to catch tiny insects. Hummingbirds are the only known birds that can fly backwards.

During hovering, (and likely other modes of flight) ruby-throated hummingbird wings beat 55 times per second.
The plant is a variable annual, forming a long-lived soil seed bank that can germinate when the soil is disturbed. In the northern hemisphere it generally flowers in late spring, but if the weather is warm enough other flowers frequently appear at the beginning of autumn. The flower is large and showy, with four petals that are vivid red, most commonly with a black spot at their base. Like many other species of Papaver, it exudes a white latex when the tissues are broken.

Uploaded

June 13th, 2013

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