Hello, Yellow

Sunshine in feathered form

Female Olive-backed Sunbird, North Queensland. © Bronwen Scott.

I planned to photograph a pair of Olive-backed Sunbirds (Cinnyris jugularis) as a reference for a drawing. The male was far too flighty, so I concentrated on the female while she perched on an emerging palm frond. This saved me from having to reproduce the iridescence of the male’s fancy bib — shades of purple and blue created entirely by tricks of the light. But I hadn’t thought about the…