ABOUT
Boris Ekner
I’m a Swedish photographer living in Guatemala City, Guatemala, since 2010.
In 1969, at age 7, I got my first camera, a Kodak Instamatic. Since then I have always had a camera of some kind. Some years after recieving my first camera in 1969 I got my own darkroom for Black & White film.
Today I shoot hummingbirds, people, and landscapes.
-No, I don't shoot weddings.
About the photos on sale
The photos sold at this site are not sold at any other location in the world.
Each sale is unique & one of a kind. Meaning, when you buy printed photos from this site you will recieve a unique object. The products sold at this site will not be found anywhere else.
- Each printed photo will have the photograthers signature.
Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds are unique for the Americas.
- Migrates from USA to Mexico, via land or the Mexican Gulf, when winter is coming. The trip across the Gulf takes 24 hours and is non stop, for obvious reasons.
- It is the only bird that can hover as well as fly in any direction, even reverse as we'll as upside down.
- Metabolism is 1500x higher than of a human.
- Eats nectar every 15 minutes. It feeds on insects for protein.
- Remembers every single flower it has once visited and fed from.
- Remembers how long time it takes for a specific flower to produce new nectar.
- Is extremely protective of flowers providing nectar, and violently fight any trespassing hummingbird. Access to nectar litererly is a matter of life & death.
- Body weight is from 2 to around 9 grams, depending on the speices.
- There are around 300 species of hummingbirds.
- Heart rate is from around 25 when asleep up to 1200 when hovering.
- The heart rate is so high when hovering that the heart expands to cope with it.
- It takes the blood one second to pass around the entire body and back to the heart while hovering.
- Body temperature is the same as the surrounding air when sleeping, but up to 40C when awake.
- Has no sense of smell.
- Some hummingbird species sleep hanging upside down.
- The feet are only for perching, i.e. cannot be used for walking.
- Wing beats up to 80 times per second.
- Speed: up to 120 km per hour.
- Lifespan: up to 12 years.
- It has the largest brain to body size of all animals.
- The vibrant colors are produced by tiny air pockets in the feathers, and changes with the angle of the light shining on them.
- Males only participate in the mating process. The female builds the nest, incubates the two to three eggs, as well as feed the young ones. Off spring mortality rate is around 50%.
- Hummingbirds are the most extreme of all living animals as no other live on the brink of fatality as these beautiful ones do.
