Bathing Purple Rumped Sunbirds

A Bathing Purple rumped Sunbird photographed in Colombo, Sri Lanka

It was early evening and our garden, at home in Colombo, had just been watered. I walked out of the house and found this drenched female Purple rumped Sunbird sitting on a large leaf. I was curious as to how it had got soaked and was trying to figure it out when it started rubbing itself on the wet leaf. More images and info inside.

A Bathing Purple rumped Sunbird photographed in Colombo, Sri Lanka

While I watched, the bird proceeded to wash its self by using its wings to flick water off the leaf. The whole "shower" took around 5 minutes and  the bird was not at all bothered by my presence. It was soon joined by a second Purple rumped Sunbird which did the exact same thing.

A Bathing Purple rumped Sunbird photographed in Colombo, Sri Lanka

I have a number of shots of the birds flicking water around but they were not very sharp. The birds movements were very quick and there wasn't sufficient light to use a faster shutter speed. If I remember correctly, the shutter speed for these shots were around 1/320 to 1/400. which in itself was quite fast.

A Bathing Purple rumped Sunbird photographed in Colombo, Sri Lanka

These images were captured with the 7D and the 100-400mm lens. I think the focal length was 400mm and the aperture was set to f5.6.

A Bathing Purple rumped Sunbird photographed in Colombo, Sri Lanka

More images of the Purple rumped Sunbird can be found here.