Hummingbird Photography - Best Photos by Melanie Barboni and David Leninson

Hummingbird Photography: A UCLA researcher who studies volcanoes and eruptions has another passion: hummingbirds. She loved hummingbirds even as a child and has now built a community of 200 hummingbirds near her office. She is also known as the Hummingbird Whisperer. These hummingbirds are like her family; if she is late feeding them, they fly directly into her office and demand attention. Every weekday, Barboni welcomes clouds of these “fairy” birds to her office window with nectar that she mixes from large bags of sugar and water. In a frenzy and a flash of iridescent greens, blues, reds, and purples, the birds flit around four 80-ounce feeders hanging outside the windows of her ground-level office. If she places her hand on the rim of a feeder, they perch there in fond recognition of the person who feeds them. She was born in Switzerland, where hummingbirds are nonexistent, and has been feeding these birds for over two years. They make her smile all the time. According to Melanie Barboni, "They are just so cute, and so smart! They remember you. They get to know you, and then they interact with you." She can recognize up to 50 hummingbirds by name, and they allow her to touch and feed them and even see their nests.