Hummingbird Faces off with a Pit Viper

Photographer Bence Máté snapped this amazing shot in Costa Rica. He writes:

I was photographing hummingbirds when I heard the sharp, alarming noise of the birds reacting to the presence of a predator. Sixty feet away from me this green-crowned brilliant was fearlessly attacking a small viper. The long shutter speed and shallow depth of field made it difficult to make an image with both animals sharp. This encounter was one of the most interesting ones I had ever seen, and I quickly set up two flashes to increase the light and shutter speed, using one flash fired from the background and another from the camera.

This image was among the winners of the 2010 Nature’s Best Photography Competition. It and other winners will be on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. starting in April.
Via [Neatorama]