Garden emeralds are very small, even for hummingbirds and -- especially in females such as these -- have fairly drab colors. In Panama, they were clearly subordinate to the larger rufous-tailed hummingbirds and white-naped jacobins around feeders, but still managed to obtain regular drinks.   These pictures were taken at the Smithsonian Instutution's Gamboa field station.

• Canon 30D, Canon 100-400 zoom at about 300 mm, fill-in flash at high-speed synch setting (2006)